In case of defeat in the decisive match against the Balkan team, Portugal would have to go through the play-offs again.
Insatiable, the captain of the Portuguese team Cristiano Ronaldo hopes to take his team to the World Cup in Qatar-2022, on Sunday (2:45 pm in Ecuador) in Lisbon on the last day of the European qualification, in a duel in which he could reach 800 official goals as a professional.
CR7 is just two goals behind this impressive figure just before playing the ‘final’ of group A against Serbia to validate a direct ticket to the next World Cup (November 21-December 18).
The two undefeated teams have beaten each other for first place since the beginning of qualifying. Both have 17 points, but the Portuguese team is first thanks to their better goal difference (+12 vs +8).
In case of defeat in the decisive match against the Balkan team, Portugal would have to go through the play-offs again.
In 2013 Ronaldo scored four goals to leave Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Sweden on the road and lead his team to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
The savior suit
Portugal’s football has been disappointing of late, similar to their goalless draw against Ireland, the 51st nation on the FIFA list, on Thursday in Dublin.
Ronaldo wants to join the prestigious and very limited club of players who have played five World Cups, made up solely of Gianluigi Buffon and Lothar Matthäus. To achieve this, you may have to put on the savior suit again.
In September the 36-year-old forward avoided a humiliating home defeat to Ireland by turning the score around with a late-game double (2-1).
These two goals served him to break the world record of so many scored with a national team, which until then had the Iranian Ali Daei (109).
With 115 goals currently, six achieved in this World Cup qualification, the Manchester United player continues to be ambitious: “I want to put the barrier even higher.”
The footballer with the most international matches in European football (183) is not currently contemplating retiring from the national team and focusing on the English club, to which he returned this year after writing his legend between 2003 and 2009.
‘Why retire?’
“Why retire? I think this is not the time ”, added the player in an interview with English television.
While he continues to break records, such as the number of matches in the European Championship (25) or in the Champions League (180), Ronaldo is clear about how far he will go.
“When I feel that I am not able to run, to dribble, to shoot, that I no longer have power, but for now I want to continue, I am still motivated,” he added to Sky Sports.
The Madeira-born player has scored 798 goals in official matches. A double in Serbia would take him to 800 goals.
A similar record was only achieved by Josef Bican, an Austrian-Czech striker who between 1931 and 1955 became the best scorer in the history of professional football, with 805 goals according to FIFA. (D)
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