When Cristiano Ronaldo towered over the ball for the first of his two penalties on Wednesday night, he was all of 12 yards away from taking the solo lead in the Golden Boot race of this European Championship. Although such trivial pursuits would not have crossed his singularly focused mind (not when Portugal’s progress into the knockouts literally lay at the captain’s feet), Ronaldo was but a huff and a hoof away from reducing this marquee clash between reigning Euro champions and reigning world champions into an individual sport.
No other footballing powerhouse has its image overshadowed by that of its greatest son quite like Portugal; not even Argentina, where Lionel Messi continues to be entwined in legacy with the late Diego Maradona. But this land that was once Eusebio’s has now altogether become that of CR7 – untouched even by the rise of Bruno Fernandes, who, almost as if to reinstate that fact, started the game against France on the bench.
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Because Portugal is Ronaldo and Ronaldo is Portugal, a 36-year-old man has scored five out his country’s seven goals in the group stages, the heft of which having already toppled records along the way. Even before the match against France began, Ronaldo had bulleted past Michel Platini’s long-standing and overall goal tally at the Euros (9). And perhaps because a Golden Boot has remained elusive across Euros or World Cups thus far, Ronaldo took the 31st minute penalty without the trademark build-up, swiftly slotting the ball to Hugo Lloris’s right. He leapt into the Budapest air, well and truly rising above the chasing pack.
Before Ronaldo scored again, there were two goals from his old friend, France’s Karim Benzema. Such thick mates that after the first of those Benzema goals (also from a penalty) poised the game at 1-1 at half-time, the former Real Madrid teammates left the field with arms over each other’s shoulders. This was also Benzema’s first goal for his country in a very long time – so long that Ronaldo had scored 53 times for Portugal in between.
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But Benzema’s next didn’t take long at all and this one wouldn’t have pleased Ronaldo at all, not when it had made the defending champions fall to dead-last in Group F, the proverbial group of death at this Euro (Germany were still trailing Hungary 1-0 at this point in Munich). So, when an opportunity to equalise came through the 59th minute penalty, Ronaldo must’ve known that missing from the spot was as potent as exiting on the spot.
Just that pressure would make most mortals wilt. But Ronaldo also found himself at the penalty spot with the added pressure to equal a rather immortal achievement – that of Ali Daei’s all-time international record of 109 goals. Iran’s Daei (the only man before Ronaldo to cross the three-figure mark for country) is to the modern-era what Ferenc Puskas was to the previous age, the Hungarian’s 84 goals having stood the test of many a decade.
So, it was perhaps apt that at the Puskas Arena in Budapest, Ronaldo released a short and sharp breath behind the ball and took aim at France and Daei. A few seconds later, he had drawn level with both.
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