Ronaldo nets 121st, 122nd goals as Portugal routs Luxembourg

LUXEMBOURG (AP) — Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to guide a 6-0 rout of Luxembourg in European Championship qualifying because the Portugal star added to his data for worldwide targets and appearances on Sunday.

The double from Ronaldo, the all-time scoring chief in males’s soccer, took his profession tally for Portugal to 122 targets within the 198th recreation for his nation.

The 38-year-old Ronaldo opened the scoring and netted his group’s fourth purpose simply after the half-hour mark because the 2016 champions simply beat the outplayed hosts.

João Félix, Bernardo Silva, and substitutes Otavio and Rafael Leão added targets for Portugal.

The comfy win comes three days after Ronaldo grew to become the most-capped participant in males’s worldwide soccer when he scored twice in his 197th look to assist beat Liechtenstein 4-0 within the debut of coach Roberto Martínez.

Ronaldo’s place as Portugal’s unquestioned chief has been restored underneath the Spanish coach, who joined Portugal after ending his lengthy stint in control of Belgium following the World Cup.

Ronaldo hit the low level of his spectacular profession in Qatar when former coach Fernando Santos benched him for Portugal’s knockout video games, together with a quarterfinals loss to Morocco. His falling out with Santos got here amid his break with Manchester United, earlier than he made his stunning transfer to the Saudi Arabian league.

He has now scored braces in back-to-back begins, albeit in opposition to European minnows.

Portugal leads Group J with six factors. Slovakia is subsequent with 4 factors after its 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has three.

Iceland additionally has three factors after it crushed Liechtenstein 7-0. Aaron Gunnarsson scored 3 times for Iceland.

The high two finishers of the group advance to the event to be performed in Germany subsequent yr.