In the realm of the football world, there is no other name that resonates more profoundly than Cristiano Ronaldo.
A lot has been said about the Portuguese captain since that loss against Morocco in the nightfall of Doha to crash out of the World Cup at the quarter-final stage. Since then, the Portugal national team has embarked on a new direction with their head coach Fernando Santos walking away from his post.
With the former Belgium head coach Roberto Martinez at the helm, Portugal hasn’t tasted defeat in the four Euro qualifier games that they have played and have also blown away Liechtenstein and Luxembourg by four and six goals to nil respectively.
Cristiano Ronaldo snatches full points vs Iceland
With the European Championship around the corner, the qualifiers have commenced in full swing, igniting a wave of anticipation and fervour. The last European championship proved to be a disaster for the Iberian nation, as they crashed out in the group stages with France and Germany qualifying from their group in first and second position respectively.
Ronaldo and his men are placed in group J for the European Championship 2024 Qualifiers alongside Slovakia, Iceland, Luxembourg, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Liechtenstein.
With Portugal having a perfect record at these qualifiers and Iceland with just one win in the last three games, it was fair to say Portugal was the outright favourite. Although, the Iceland team didn’t make it any easy for the team in red. The Portuguese departed from Reykjavík with three points courtesy of the 89th-minute close-quarter finish from CR7 in his 200th international match.
Despite having just 3 shots on target, Portugal dug out a win in the closing stages of the match. This puts Portugal at the brink of qualification at the top of the table of Group J with 12 points.
Portugal’s underwhelming World Cup campaigns
The journey back to Portugal from Doha was an unexpected one for the fans after their national team went out in the quarter-finals stage at the World Cup. There was a lot of chatter about it being “The Last Dance” for Cristiano Ronaldo on the biggest stage. The Portuguese were the table toppers of Group H at the World Cup and qualified for the round of 16 alongside South Korea.
The round of 16 proved to be a cakewalk for the team in red as they beat Switzerland by six goals to one where Goncalo Ramos, Ronaldo’s prodigy bagged a hat-trick. Ronaldo and his team had to bow out of the tournament as they faced defeat to the determined and fired-up Moroccan national team. The “never-ending” wait of their people to see their country lift the World Cup continued.
As the sun sets on the illustrious career of CR7, the Portuguese national team will always be grateful for one of the greatest footballers of the generation to be theirs. It seems that Ronaldo has his sights to lead the line for his national team once again at the European Championships 2024 and his fans across the globe anticipate the yet-to-be-written chapters in CR7’s folklore.
