Looking back at all of Cristiano Ronaldo's international hat-tricks

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Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo racked up the 54th international hat-trick of his professional career (both club and country) by netting his second Euro qualifying hat-trick for Portugal in a thumping 5-1 win against Lithuania in Vilnius.

The Portuguese marksman's 93 international goals are only dwarfed by Iranian legend Ali Daei, who netted 109 goals for the Asian nation.

Ronaldo scored his first international goal at the Estádio do Dragão against Greece at Euro 2004 in a game that Portugal lost 1-2. Since then, Portugal have not lost any of the 60 subsequent games (won 55, drawn 5) in which their prolific captain has found the back of the net.

The Juventus forward has scored 77 of his 93 goals for Portugal in competitive fixtures - 30 in World Cup qualifiers, 25 in Euro qualifiers, 9 at the Euros, 7 at the World Cup, 3 in the Nations League and 2 in the Confederations Cup. That tally alone is good enough for a joint-seventh place in the list of most international goals scored by a player.

Here is a list of Ronaldo's international hat-tricks:

#1 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland

Cristiano Ronaldo rejoices after scoring one of his three goals in Belfast
Cristiano Ronaldo rejoices after scoring one of his three goals in Belfast

Ronaldo scored his first international hat-trick in his 106th game for Portugal, netting three times for the Selecção das Quinas in a 2-4 away win against Northern Ireland in Belfast in a qualifying game for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

After Bruno Alvez had opened the scoring for the visitors, goals from Gareth McAuley and James Ward gave a 2-1 lead to Northern Ireland seven minutes into the second half. But Ronaldo restored parity for Portugal in the 68th minute.

13 minutes later, Ronaldo's second gave the visitors the lead for the second time in the match. And seven minutes from time, Ronaldo applied the coup de grace to complete his first international hat-trick for Portugal.

#2 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying play-off against Sweden

Ronaldo exults after scoring against Sweden
Ronaldo exults after scoring against Sweden

After netting the only goal of the game against Sweden in the first leg play-off for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Ronaldo opened the scoring for the visitors five minutes into the second half in the second leg in Solna.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's four-minute brace gave Sweden the lead on away goals, 18 minutes from time. But Portugal would have the last laugh as Ronaldo scored twice in the space of two minutes to score his second international hat-trick and lead Portugal to the 2014 World Cup with a 4-2 aggregate win in the play-offs.

#3 2016 Euro qualifiers against Armenia

Cristiano Ronaldo scores against Armenia in Yerevan
Cristiano Ronaldo scores against Armenia in Yerevan

In his 120th international game for Portugal, Ronaldo equalized for the visitors after Marcos Pizzelli's free-kick had given hosts Armenia a 1-0 lead in Yerevan in a qualifying game for the 2016 Euros.

Ronaldo completed his first Euro qualifying hat-trick in the space of three second-half minutes as Portugal took a 3-1 lead.

After Tiago was sent off in the 62nd minute for a second yellow card, Hrayr Mkoyan reduced the arrears for Armenia in the 72nd minute to set up a grandstand finale. But 10-man Portugal hung on for a hard-fought 3-2 win.

#4 2018 World Cup qualifiers against Andorra

Cristiano Ronaldo rejoices after scoring against Andorra
Cristiano Ronaldo rejoices after scoring against Andorra

The prolific marksman scored his third FIFA World Cup qualifying hat-trick in a qualifier for the 2018 World Cup, where Portugal overwhelmed Andorra 6-0 at the Estádio do Dragão.

Ronaldo scored his first two goals of the game inside four minutes against the outclassed visitors, and completed his 4th international hat-trick two minutes into the second half.

In the 68th minute, Ronaldo scored for the fourth time in the game for his first 'four-goal' haul in international football as Portugal ran out comfortable 6-0 winners. It was Ronaldo's first international hat-trick at home.

#5 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against the Faroe Islands

Ronaldo celebrates one of his goals against the Faroe Islands
Ronaldo celebrates one of his goals against the Faroe Islands

Ronaldo scored his second hat-trick of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign when he found the net three times against the Faroe Islands in a thumping 5-1 win for Portugal.

A brace from Ronaldo gave Portugal a 2-0 lead inside the opening half-hour as the hosts led 2-1 at the half-time break. 20 minutes into the second-half Ronaldo netted his third of the game.

After going 105 games without an international hat-trick for Portugal, Ronaldo celebrated his 5th hat-trick in 28 games for the 2016 Euro winners.

#6 2018 World Cup against Spain

Ronaldo exults after scoring against Spain in the 2018 FIFA World Cup
Ronaldo exults after scoring against Spain in the 2018 FIFA World Cup

In an enterprising group-game during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, Ronaldo scored from the spot to give Portugal a fourth-minute lead against Spain in Sochi.

After Diego Costa restored parity for the 2010 champions, Ronaldo restored Portugal's lead in the 44th minute as the 2016 Euro winners led 2-1 at half-time.

Costa pegged Portugal back for the second time in the match, 10 minutes into the second half, and Nacho scored three minutes later as Spain led for the first time in the game.

But Ronaldo had other ideas. A superb free-kick two minutes from time helped restore parity for Portugal as the prolific marksman scored his first hat-trick at the FIFA World Cup.

#7 2018-19 UEFA Nations League against Switzerland

Cristiano Ronaldo scores his first hat-trick in the UEFA Nations League
Cristiano Ronaldo scores his first hat-trick in the UEFA Nations League

In the inaugural edition of the UEFA Nations League, Ronaldo scored his seventh international hat-trick as Portugal beat Switzerland 3-1 at home.

Ronaldo opened the scoring against the visitors with a free-kick after 25 minutes to give the hosts a 1-0 lead at half-time. After Ricardo Rodríguez restored parity for Switzerland 12 minutes into the second half, Ronaldo scored his second and third goals of the game two minutes from time as Portugal ran out 3-1 winners.

It was Ronaldo's second hat-trick at the Estádio do Dragão.

#8 2020 Euro qualifiers against Lithuania

Ronaldo scores against Lithuania
Ronaldo scores against Lithuania

After scoring his first goal of the 2020 Euro qualifiers against Serbia, Ronaldo was on the scoreboard for the second qualifying game in succession when he opened the scoring in the seventh minute from the penalty spot against Lithuania.

Vytautas Andriuškevičius scored an equalizer against the run of play as the hosts went into half-time at 1-1. But the Juventus marksman soon restored Portugal's lead 16 minutes into the second half.

Four minutes later, Ronaldo completed his eighth hat-trick in a national team jersey as Portugal emerged comfortable 5-1 winners in Vilnius.

It was Ronaldo's second hat-trick in Euro qualifiers as the Portugal captain usurped erstwhile leader Robbie Keane of Ireland (23 goals) for the most goals (25) in Euro qualifying history.

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Edited by Musab Abid