ANÁLISIS
Portugal's national team plays for direct qualification to the World Cup this Tuesday against Switzerland in Lisbon. Only a win will do. If they succeed, they will be the leaders of their group. If they don't get the three points, it will be the Swiss team that qualifies directly for the World Cup, while Portugal would have to play in the playoffs. A possibility that nobody contemplates at this time in the Portuguese country, still drunk with euphoria for winning against Andorra. Or rather, not for the victory itself, but for how it happened, with Cristiano Ronaldo in a stellar performance.
The challenges that Cristiano Ronaldo has left
The number 7 started the game on the bench, entered the field when half of the match had been played, and the nil-nil draw quickly turned into a 2-0 lead for Portugal. With a goal from Cristiano included. He is a star in himself. But, on top of that, he arrives as a savior. He has scored 60% of the goals in this phase of World Cup qualifying. He has an average of one goal every little over 100 minutes in the qualifiers for major continental tournaments throughout his career with the national team. It is logical that there is blind faith in him for the match at Da Luz this Tuesday.
Furthermore, as if direct qualification to the World Cup in Russia were not enough of an incentive, Cristiano has another goal in his hands for the match this Tuesday against Switzerland: with just one more goal, he would enter the podium of the highest goal scorers in international teams' history. Right now, he has 79 goals in 176 games with the Portuguese team. The same number that the legendary Chitalu has with Zambia.
The record of Pelé, for example, is a thing of the past: 77 goals with Brazil. And ahead today, only three players remain who have scored more goals for their respective national teams: Kamamoto with Japan (80 goals), Ferenc Puskas with Hungary (84), and Ali Daei with Iran (109). It seems evident that sooner rather than later he will catch up to the Japanese to enter the podium - maybe even this Tuesday - and even surpass Puskas to become the European top scorer for national teams in history. The question is: will Cristiano also reach Ali Daei's record to become the all-time top scorer for national teams?
At 32 years old, Cristiano needs 30 more goals. And he maintains an average of one goal every two games with the national team, which would mean practically 60 more games with the team. Considering that there are usually around 13 international matches per year, Cristiano would need about 4 or 5 more years at the same scoring rate with Portugal to reach Ali Daeli, approximately. It could be too much, even for a record devourer like Cristiano. Or not?