Saturday, October 9, 2021 at 11:05 PM• Jeroen van Poppel

Cristiano Ronaldo took over the European international record from Sergio Ramos on Saturday evening. The Manchester United attacker came into action for Portugal for the 181st time in the friendly against Qatar (3-0 win), while Ramos is 180 for Spain. The Malaysian former player Soh Chin Ann is the world leader with 219 international matches played. Ronaldo, who only played the first half, graced his record game with his 112th goal for his country.

The Portuguese immediately started testing goalkeeper Saad Al Sheeb, who made saves from dangerous attempts by André Silva and Goncalo Guedes. After more than half an hour of play, Ronaldo was released in front of the Qatari goalkeeper thanks to a beautiful pass from right back Diogo Dalot. Much to his frustration, Ronaldo aimed wide of the goal, but the star player was able to correct his mistake minutes later. Dalot headed a ball back in front of the goal from the back line, where Tarek Salman missed and thus offered Ronaldo an unmissable goal: 1-0.

Shortly after the break, Al Sheeb saved on a header by William Carvalho, but on a new effort with the head of José Fonte from a free kick by Carvalho, the keeper had to be unable to answer: 2-0. André Silva could have scored the third Portuguese goal later in the game on a cross from the left, but stumbled on Al Sheeb and also saw his rebound reverse. Rafael Leão hit the bottom of the bar with a curled shot in the final phase. Portugal made it 3-0 in the final minute, when André Silva headed in a good cross from Leão.