After closing 2023 with a goal, Cristiano Ronaldo inaugurated his new year of official competition with a key goal for Al Nassr’s 1-0 victory against Al Feiha in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Asian Champions League. and increased his difference in the daily battle to establish himself as the top gunner in history.
Unlike other games, the 39-year-old forward showed a different face because he was far from frustrated when the ball did not reach him for much of the match and, towards the end of the first half, goalkeeper Vladimir Stojković, 40, diverted a heads-up. Already in the complement, he reappeared to contain in two moments a header lacking direction from CR7. The missed chances did not undermine the Portuguese’s confidence, as he encouraged his teammates in every intervention.
From the last half hour of play, the home team began to suffer a continuous gale from Al Nassr at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh and the fortress was demolished with a dozen minutes remaining before closing time. El Bicho teamed up with Abdullah Al-Khaibari, gave the ball to Marcelo Brozović and the Croatian central midfielder returned the wall with a soft touch into the void. In one-on-one, Cristiano scored over a struggling Stojković in the only emotion of the duel. The third time was the charm.
With that celebration, the top scorer of 2023, above important names such as Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland, expanded his distance over Lionel Messi in the permanent fight to secure the label of the highest scoring footballer in the history of this sport. He reached 874 goals compared to the 822 celebrations of the world champion with the Argentine team. An advantage of 52 goals between them, although Messi is three years younger than the European attacker and still has time to match him.
Both also star in the ranking of the top scorers at the national team level because the man from Rosario has accumulated 106 goals (and 54 assists) in 180 appearances with Argentina and is far from his competitor, who has 128 celebrations in 205 games played with the Portuguese team. although he has the advantage of being younger (36). In the middle of the duo is the Iranian Ali Daei, who accumulated 109 goals in 149 matches during his career in his country’s team (1993 to 2006), according to data from the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS). It should be noted that the current second highest scorer in history at the national team level claims to have 111 goals and that FIFA does not validate that figure because it does not count him a double against Afghanistan.
On the other hand, Cristiano Ronaldo is on his way to breaking another record in a matter of weeks. With his 1,205th match as a professional, he was one away from equaling the historic English goalkeeper, Peter Shilton (1,206) and 9 matches away from tying goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni (1,214) as the footballer with the most appearances in history. If you take into account his starting against Al Hilal in the Riyadh Season Cup (pre-season tournament), he would have already tied Shilton. In that select list, Messi remains far away with 1,053 official matches, according to Messi Stats, the official portal that compiles all the statistics of the best player in the world.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr will return to the fields this Saturday from 2pm against Al Fateh as a home team for matchday 20 of the Saudi Arabia League, where it is in second place with 46 points, 7 points behind the leader Al Hilal . And next Wednesday from 3pm they will host Al Feiha for the rematch of the Champions League round of 16 with the advantage of knowing that a draw or victory will qualify them for the quarterfinals.
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