{"id":93024,"date":"2025-09-07T05:36:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T05:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=93024"},"modified":"2025-09-07T05:36:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T05:36:57","slug":"ronaldo-reaches-140-portugal-goals-in-wcq-rout-of-armenia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=93024","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo reaches 140 Portugal goals in WCQ rout of Armenia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cristiano Ronaldo\u2018s quest to play in a record sixth World Cup began in typical fashion with two goals as\u00a0Portugal\u00a0made a winning start to its qualifying campaign by routing Armenia 5-0.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo\u2019s goals extended his record as the highest scorer in men\u2019s international football to 140 and underlined his enduring motivation to keep setting more benchmarks before his storied career comes to an end.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a02026 World Cup: Who has qualified, and how the rest can make it<\/p>\n

His brace Saturday also took him up to 38 goals in World Cup qualifiers, two clear of\u00a0Lionel Messi\u00a0and only one behind the all-time leader, Carlos\u00a0Ru\u00edz of\u00a0Guatemala.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst step taken,\u201d Ronaldo\u00a0posted on Instagram\u00a0shortly after the final whistle.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old soccer great has recently signed a new contract with Saudi Arabian club\u00a0Al Nassr\u00a0and led Portugal to victory at the\u00a0UEFA Nations League\u00a0last summer. The World Cup is the one major trophy that eludes him \u2014 leaving him behind his great rival Messi, who lifted soccer\u2019s biggest prize with\u00a0Argentina\u00a0in 2022.<\/p>\n

Next year would likely be Ronaldo\u2019s last chance to win it when the tournament is staged in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Like him, Messi would also be playing at a sixth World Cup \u2014 setting the pair apart from any other player, with a host of names having appeared in five.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo \u2014 a five-time Champions League winner, who also lifted the European Championship trophy with his country \u2014 struck in each half at the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium as Portugal made a flying start in Group F.<\/p>\n

His first was a close-range tap-in from Pedro Neto\u2019s cross but his second saw him roll back the years with a thunderous shot from around 25 yards. He wheeled away in celebration with his arms outstretched.<\/p>\n

Jo\u00e3o F\u00e9lix\u00a0also scored twice and hit the opening goal after just 10 minutes.\u00a0Jo\u00e3o Cancelo\u00a0was also on target.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a near-perfect performance,\u201d said Portugal midfielder Vitinha.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"RonaldoCristiano Ronaldo’s quest to play in a record sixth World Cup began in typical fashion with two goals as\u00a0Portugal\u00a0made a winning start to its qualifying campaign by routing Armenia 5-0.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8084,2047,10,9,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-espn","category-hp-news-9","category-politics","category-popular","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}