I don’t look for records, they look for me: CR7
KIEV: Cristiano Ronaldo has lost count of the number of records he has broken, the Portugal forward said after scoring the 700th goal of his career during a 2-1 defeat to Ukraine on Monday.
“The records come naturally, I don’t look for them, the records look for me,” he told reporters after scoring his 95th goal for his country.
“It’s not for anyone to reach this number and I thank everyone, teammates, colleagues, coaches and everyone who helped Cristiano become the player that he is.”
However, Ronaldo said that the defeat to Ukraine in a Euro 2020 qualifier took some of the shine off the achievement.
“It’s a nice moment in my career but there was a bitter taste because we didn’t win,” he said.
“We played well, but we didn’t win. We did everything we could and we had plenty of chances.”
Ronaldo is the all time leading scorer in the Champions League with 127 goals, holds the record for the most goals in a single Champions League season, is Real Madrid’s all time highest scorer and Portugal’s most capped player and record scorer.
The first five goals of Ronaldo career were scored for Portugal’s Sporting in 2002-03.
He then scored 118 goals in 232 appearances during six seasons with Manchester United and, remarkably, averaged over a goal a game for Real Madrid, scoring 450 in 438 appearances over the course of nine seasons.
In just over one season with his current club Juventus, he notched a further 32 goals in 51 matches.
Despite the defeat, Portugal remained second in Group G with 11 points from six games, one ahead of Serbia, and will qualify for Euro 2020 if they win their remaining matches, at home to Lithuania and away to Luxemburg.
“We played too much with our hearts and not enough with our heads,” said coach Fernando Santos.
UKRAINE QUALIFY FOR EURO 2020
Meanwhile, Ukraine booked their place in Euro 2020 after squeezing past Portugal.
An d r i y Shevchenko’s unbeaten team are through to next summer’s finals with a match to spare as Group B winners thanks to first-half goals from Roman Yaremchuk and Andriy Yarmolenko, which meant that Ronaldo’s 72nd minute penalty wasn’t enough for Portugal.
Ukraine join Poland, Russia, Italy and Belgium in the multihost tournament which kicks off in Rome on June 12, with Shevchenko—who scored 48 times for Ukraine in 111 matches—proving a similar success on the bench as he was on the pitch.
Portugal dominated the second half and pulled one back when Ronaldo blasted home the spot-kick to make it 700 goals for club and country, but they couldn’t f i nd an equaliser despite some good chances.
“There are days like these, when the ball just doesn’t want to go in,” said Portuguese midfielder Danilo. “No need to do the maths now: we just need to win the next two games to reach Euro 2020.”
Elsewhere, Kosovo’s 2-0 win o v e r Mont e n e g r o means England need a win from one of their remaining two matches to ensure qualification.
AYHAN DENIES FRANCE France also missed a spot in the Euros when Kaan Ayhan’s leveller snatched a point for Turkey in a match played against a backdrop of diplomatic tensions after Paris condemned Ankara for its military offensive against Kurdish forces in Syria.
Substitute Olivier Giroud headed France in front on 76 minutes at the Stade de France. Ayhan nodded home six minutes later—and celebrated with a military salute in front of the Turkish supporters—to leave Didier Deschamps side waiting.