A Portuguese star gets ready for a doubleheader of Euro 2024 qualifiers against Slovakia and Luxembourg.
Although he only participated in all three of Al Nassr’s five games this season, Cristiano Ronaldo has been in surprisingly brilliant form, leading both the league in goals and assists.
Ronaldo went on a scoring spree after failing to score in Nassr’s shocking home loss to high-flying Al Taawoun and the opening-round defeat to Steven Gerrard’s Al Ettifaq.
Following a hat-trick and an assist in the 5-0 thrashing of Al Fateh, a brace and another assist in the 4-0 victory over Al Shabab, then a further goal and two assists in the convincing 5-1 triumph over Al Hazem, were all impressive performances.
Nassr has scored 14 goals in three games since those early defeats, with Ronaldo contributing to 10 of them (excluding the assist he gave Nassr in the tight victory over UAE champions Shabab Al Ahli to secure Nassr’s spot in the Asian Champions League group stages).
Ronaldo therefore reunited with his international teammates this week, ready to assist Portugal in maintaining their lead in Group J during the Euro 2020 qualifiers.
In their first four games, Portugal has won all of them, scoring 14 goals while allowing none, with Ronaldo’s participation being a key factor in their successful campaign.
Ronaldo’s status as a member of the Portuguese national team was briefly jeopardized when he was benched by his previous manager Fernando Santos for the 2022 World Cup match against Switzerland. Ronaldo’s replacement, Goncalo Ramos, later proved the decision to bench him was the right one by scoring a hat-trick.
However, Ronaldo has played each of the four games since Roberto Martinez was named Santos’ replacement and has scored five goals, including the game-winning goal against Iceland in June.
The 38-year-old striker is anticipated to start at center forward for Portugal, first against Slovakia away on Friday night and then against Luxembourg at home on Monday.
Ronaldo and his colleagues have been attending training sessions in Portugal in order to be ready for the Euro 20204 qualifiers double-header and to hasten their trip to Germany for the tournament.
He was accompanied by players like Bernardo Silva, the treble-winning midfielder for Manchester City, Rafael Leao, the attacker for AC Milan, and Joao Felix and Joao Cancelo, who were on loan from Barcelona.
View the greatest images from the training sessions in Portugal in the photo gallery above. Click the arrows to advance to the next image, or swipe on a mobile device.