Record-breaking Ronaldo fires Portugal to victory over Hungary

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Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal

A late flurry of goals from Portugal, including a Cristiano Ronaldo double, helped the defending champions seal a 3-0 win over Hungary at a packed Puskás Aréna in Budapest on Tuesday evening.

The first chance of the match fell to Portugal’s Diogo Jota, who stung the palms of Hungary goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi with a strike from the edge of the box.

The next big chance came five minutes before half time and also fell to Jota, but Gulácsi was again equal to the Portugal striker’s turn and shot.

Moments later Cristiano Ronaldo missed an incredible chance to open the scoring when a ball was whipped into the box, but the Portugal captain could only divert his effort over the bar when it looked easier to score.

In the 67th minute, Bruno Fernandes unleashed an effort from range which Gulácsi had to be alert to tip around the post.

Portugal then had an appeal for a penalty when the ball struck a Hungarian defender on the hand but after a quick VAR review, the referee waved play on.

Hungary substitute Szabolcs Schön then had the ball in the net at the other end, lifting the roof off the stadium momentarily, but the goal was correctly ruled out for offside.

The breakthrough finally came in the 84th minute, when the ball fell to Portugal’s Raphaël Guerreiro just inside the area, and his strike took a deflection off a defender on its way into the corner.

That 1-0 soon became 2-0, when Willi Orbán hauled down Rafa Silva in the box and the referee pointed to the spot.

Ronaldo stepped up and drilled home the penalty which makes him the top-scorer in European Championship history with 10 goals in the competition.

And in stoppage time, the 36-year-old then made it 3-0 when he played a delightful one-two with Rafa Silva before rounding the goalkeeper to score his second of the game.

Ronaldo is now just three goals behind Iran icon Ali Daei in the race for the leading international men’s goalscorer of all time.

Daei scored 109 goals in his career, Ronaldo now has 106.