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Cristiano Ronaldo might have just cemented his position as one of the best players ever to grace the sport after another genius performance for Portugal against Lithuania in the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers.
Portugal have already qualified for the European Championships next year courtesy their triumph in the UEFA Nations' League. They beat Netherlands 1-0 in the final of the competition in June.
For the majority of the past decade, Ronaldo has been carrying Portugal on his own. But the times have changed after arrival of other key stars like Bernardo Silva, Joao Moutinho and, most recently, teenager Joao Felix.
But, the 34-year-old Juventus forward is still proving his worth with every passing week in world football.
Last night, Portugal visited Lithuania to play their qualifier match in the EURO Qualification Group B. Ronaldo's opener in the 7th minute was cancelled by Lithuania's Vytautas Andriuskevecius in the 28th minute.The match seemed a close affair until the end of the first half when both the teams were locked at one goal apiece. But Cristiano had other plans for the second half.
The striker scored two goals in the space of 20 minutes after the start of the second half, which completed his hat-trick, and added another one in the 76th minute to make it four for himself. William Carvalho added another in the 90th minute and the game ended with five goals to Portugal with Lithuania's one.
An amazing performance again by the Portuguese legend has also become more memorable after he went on to break a few records last night thanks to his goal tally. Today we take a look at the top 3 records that were broken last night by Cristiano Ronaldo!
#3 Hat-tricks against eight different countries in competitive games
The ex-Real Madrid and Manchester United star has a total of 8 international hat-tricks for Portugal and all of them are against different nations, which is a record which in itself.
Lionel Messi is the second on the record list with six International hat-tricks for Argentina against different oppositions.
This is a very unique record as none of the players from the past two decades in the history of football come even closer to these two legends of the game.
With the European Qualifiers to continue towards the end of the year and the UEFA Euro 2020 to be held next year, we can just expect Ronaldo to extend this record with his goals against more different international oppositions.
#2 Highest number of career hat-tricks
After last night's 4 goals against Lithuania which will be counted as an official hat-trick, Ronaldo now has 54 career hat-tricks across his club and national career.
As expected, he narrowly has an edge over his greatest counterpart Lionel Messi who has 51 career hat-tricks, the last being in FC Barcelona's 4-1 win over Real Betis in March 2019.
The Portuguese was very right to mention at the recent UEFA awards that it was unbelievable what the duo have achieved collectively in the past decade and have shared the awards' stage almost every year.
The striker has already made a great start to the 2019-20 season having opened his scoring against Napoli as Juventus sit 2nd on the Serie A table with 6 points from 2 matches. Inter Milan are currently top of the table on goal difference.
With six goals in the last 10 days already, the stage is all set for another record breaking season for Cristiano Ronaldo.
#1 All-time top-scorer in European qualifiers
Yesterday's man-of-the-match performance and four goals mean that Cristiano Ronaldo has now surpassed Robbie Keane to become the goalscorer with highest number of goals in the European Qualifiers.
The Portuguese forward has 25 goals in 31 games now, which is two more than what Keane had until his retirement in August 2016.
Before the game, Ronaldo was 2 short of Keane's record and anyone might have expected him to equal or break the record by a single goal, but as he brought his 'A game' to Lithaunia last night, there was no stopping the 34 year old striker.
The Irish footballer also happened to address Ronaldo about his record when he posted a story on Instagram a day before the game.
Considering the career time-frame that it has taken for Ronaldo to reach this milestone even after being consistent for more than 12 years, we might never see this record being broken ever.
