Cristiano Ronaldo has arrived at the FIFA World Cup 2026! Even at 41 years of age, the Portuguese superstar was the primary force in Portugal's grand 5-0 win against Uzbekistan on Tuesday, June 23, 2026.
The player, who is playing in his sixth straight World Cup tournament, found the back of the net twice, winning the much deserved Player of the Match award. With his first goal, he became the first and only player to score in six different World Cup tournament (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2026).
On Friday, at the Houston Stadium, Portugal devoured Uzbekistan in their 5-0 win and their captain, Cristiano Ronaldo led the way with two stunning goals.
While Portugal is still not assured of a spot in the World Cup knock-out round, they have definitely showed that it is too early to count them out.
After an underwhelming performance in the 2026 World Cup opener against DR Congo, Ronaldo took no time to make amends and opened the scoring in the 6th minute with his first goal at the tournament.
As the stadium erupted in cheers, he marked his record-breaking goal with his iconic "siuu" celebration. Portuguese player Nuno Mendes doubled the lead in the 17th minute before Ronaldo scored a second to complete his brace in the 39th minute.
Uzbekistan, who should tremendous will-power and resilience found it difficult to recover from the early goals. They had scored a goal in the 31st minute but a foul in the build-up saw it get ruled out.
Portugal found greater control of the game in the second half as two more goals were scored, including an unfortunate own goal in the 60th minute and a stunner by Rafael Leão in the 87th minute.
Although Ronaldo did not get his hat-trick, he managed to take his tally of World Cup goals upto 10, making him Portugal’s all-time top scorer in the tournament's history and the oldest player to score a brace at the World Cup.
He also joined Lionel Messi and Denmark's Michael Laudrup to become the both youngest and oldest goalscorer for his country at the World Cup.
With this inspiring performance, Ronaldo ended his drought of not scoring for his country in major tournaments for 10 consecutive matches. He will not look forward to carry this form into Portugal's crucial final Group Stage game against Colombia on Saturday.
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