Three days after being released from Manchester United, tonight (Thursday) Cristiano Ronaldo went to the fifth World Cup in his career – looking more excited than ever, and once again delivered the goods on the biggest stage of all. The star of the Portugal national team was seen in tears during the Portuguese national anthem, just before the opening whistle for the game against Ghana. Then, in the 65th minute, his team received a gift in the form of a dubious penalty, Ronaldo of course stepped up to kick and celebrated his 118th goal in the international uniform. This is real history: in doing so, he became the first player of all time to score in five different World Cups. Portugal had to work hard, but in the end scraped a dramatic 2:3, and took an important step towards the next stage.
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Numbers
* Ronaldo became the second oldest scorer in the history of the World Cup, at the age of 37 and 292 days. He overtook the Swedish Gunnar Gren (37 and 236 days) and in front of him only the legendary Cameroonian Roja Mille, who found the net in the 1994 World Cup when he was 42 years and 39 days old.
* In addition to this, the Portuguese captain scored in all ten international tournaments in which he took part – World Cup and Euro, thus breaking the record of Ghanaian Asamoah Gyan which stood until today at nine consecutive tournaments – including the African Championship.
* Ronaldo won the most outstanding player award at the end of the match, thus becoming the player who won the award the most times in the various World Cups.
* The star equaled, with his eighth goal in the group stage of the World Cup, Gerd Müller and Jurgen Klinsmann. The all-time top goalscorer is Miroslav Klose (11).
* Ronaldo scored a fourth penalty in the World Cup – this is an all-time record, which is also held by his countryman Eusebio, Gabriel Batistuta, Asamoah Gyan and Rob Rensenbrink.
Cristiano Ronaldo becomes the first men’s player in ???????????????????????????? to score in five World Cups ???? pic.twitter.com/VaaqyegUep
— Eurosport (eurosport) November 24, 2022
⚡ – cristiano Ronaldo????????
5 – Only player to score at 5 World Cups
7 – Top scorer FIFA Club World Cup
14 – Top scorer EUROs
118 – Top scorer worldwide international matches (+1)
140 – Top scorer Champions league
450 – Top scorer Real Madrid#porgha #FIFAWorldCup— Gracenote Live (GracenoteLive) November 24, 2022
Cristiano Ronaldo was in tears before playing in his fifth World Cup ???? pic.twitter.com/54kvAHzFLc
— B/R Football (brfootball) November 24, 2022
Ronaldo emotional during the Portuguese anthem ???????????? pic.twitter.com/cNlCssgV2x
— B24 (B24PT) November 24, 2022
This is how much Cristiano Ronaldo cares about this World Cup ????❤️ pic.twitter.com/0d9MozmKU7
— SPORTbible (sportbible) November 24, 2022
Ronaldo received a standing ovation at the stadium in Qatar when he warmed up with his Portugal teammates:
Huge cheer for Ronaldo and Portugal as they come out to warm up. ????pic.twitter.com/vPJh4piDC8
— The CR7 Timeline. (TimelineCR7) November 24, 2022
The responses
“It was a beautiful moment, my fifth World Cup, I’m very proud,” said Cristiano, who this time did not mince words in front of the journalists. “We won and started off on the right foot. This is a very important victory, we know that in these championships, the first game is very important. It was difficult, but we deservedly won.”
Ronaldo only agreed to answer two questions at the press conference and abandoned it after two minutes and 12 seconds. “This chapter is over after this week, it’s over,” he agreed to say, referring to his departure from Manchester United, before leaving. “Everything is currently focused on the World Cup. Everything else doesn’t matter right now.”
The winning coach Fernando Santos concluded by saying: “We stood up well, we had good burst attacks and we also defended well, Ghana couldn’t really create burst attacks against us. At the beginning we were too passive, and from the 35th minute onwards we improved. It wasn’t easy, but I told my players You have to be patient, the opponent kept with all their players. We conceded goals out of nowhere, and we shouldn’t concede goals out of nowhere. The result just doesn’t make sense, and we’ll have to improve things. What’s important is to take three points, one more win and we’re on.”
Joao Felix, who scored the Portuguese’s second goal, added: “We completely dominated the game, but we couldn’t score at the beginning. In the second half it opened up a bit, we had spaces and that helped. We suffered at the end, but that’s the Portuguese way, if we always win like that it’s OK. For me it’s a dream to win the World Cup, it’s something I’ve dreamed of since I was a child and then one of the biggest moments in my career.”
Raphael Lao, who celebrated his debut goal in the national team, was also happy: “I’m not happy, I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time and I’m happy that we won. We prepared very well for this game, we knew exactly what Ghana would do. We were European champions and I think we’re also the favorites to win the World Cup. Whether we are older or younger, we come to win.” Rafael Guerrero agreed: “We are on the right track to win the cup, now we need to focus on the next game.”
Meanwhile, in the UK they continue to deal with the future of CR7. According to a report in “Sky Sports”, Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia is trying to join. In the summer, United received an offer from Saudi Arabia, and while the Red Devils agreed to it, the star himself rejected the move, which he claimed would have been accompanied by a whopping £300m salary.
In the second round, in four days, Portugal will meet Uruguay in a huge battle.