As Portugal is all set to cross swords with Sweden in Solna, an old memory was rekindled where Ronaldo and Zlatan battled off in a cutthroat encounter that saw the Portuguese coming out trumps in 2013. Things have changed drastically since then and Ronaldo has kissed unfathomable heights in international football.
After missing out the opener against Croatia due to a toe infection, the Juventus talisman will return to the Portuguese echelons to help his nation secure full points from what would seem to be an ailing Swedish outfit.
Ronaldo will be stepping into this encounter with the objective of being the second international player to achieve the glorious benchmark of 100 goals in international football and he will also be chasing the remarkable Ali Daei of Iran who managed to garner 109 goals from 144 games, thereby placing him on a pedestal which until now seemed beyond anyone’s league.
How did Ronaldo come all the way up here?
He started his scoring campaign in 2004 when he slammed an emphatic header from a brilliant Figo assist to half the arrears against Greece in their league game. He shortly followed it up with another glancing header, veering off Deco’s assist into the net in the semi-finals of the same tournament.
The first international goal of his foot came against Latvia in World Cup qualifiers in the same year that saw Portugal walking away with the bragging rights. It took him a good deal of time to enlist his right foot in the charts as it was on the 13th of October that saw his right foot firing the second of the night as Portugal imposed a punishing defeat on Russia.
That was just the beginning of an era as the star started shining a lot more brightly, taking on his counterparts at will and conjuring the magic of the highest order.
Tonight’s game will be of imperative significance to Ronaldo as the former Manchester United striker will eye a special figure which carries totemic importance of underlining that a player is not just great but he is a legend, the century of goals.
