Ronaldo strikes twice as Portugal beat Hungary 3-0

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to reach 70 international goals and became the third most prolific striker in international football in Europe as Portugal downed Hungary 3-0 at Estadia da Luz in the Group B encounter of the UEFA World Cup Qualifiers.

After Portugal cornered Euro glory last summer, Ronaldo has scored nine goals in his last four international games along with finding the net 28 times for his club Real Madrid this season.

With 12 points from 5 games, Portugal stay within sniffing distance of group leaders Switzerland who are at 15 points having played the same number of games. On the other hand, having lost to Portugal, Hungary's chances of qualifying for the World Cup are all but gone.

Portugal began slow on the night as Hungary looked far more comfortable with the ball and penetrated the Portuguese half keeping much of the possession. Portuguese soon began to get into their skin and found some flair first in the 7th minute when Ronaldo found the ball and turned around to find a shooting angle but in the end, he sliced it high and wide.

In the 12th minute, Portugal earned a free kick a little outside the box and it was only a deflection that sent Ronaldo's free kick wide of the near post. Quaresma and João Mario looked like constant threats for Hungary on the left and it was their creativity that kept putting Portugal in good goal scoring areas. One such beauty of a pass from Quaresma was astonishingly headed wide by Ronaldo in the 20th minute.

Portugal soon found their best ball movement in the 31st minute when Ronaldo surged ahead with the ball and passed towards Raphael Guerreiro on the left whose wonderful first time pass was brilliantly tapped in by Andre Silva.

The goal shifted the whole momentum of the game towards Portugal and they looked like a much more threatening side after that. Just four minutes later, the goal-scorer Silva turned provider for Ronaldo as he jumped high and met Pepe's long pass and let through an exquisite back pass towards Ronaldo who took just one touch to set himself up and smashed the ball into the near post.

Pumped up by his brilliant goal, Ronaldo later attempted an audacious overhead kick to put Mario's intelligent pass into the net only to be able to make a half connection to it and in the end, it was a comfortable save for the Hungarian keeper.

Two goals down, Hungary looked frustrated and began making rash tackles. One such tackle in the 65th minute awarded Portugal a free kick 30 yards out on the left of the post. Ronaldo stepped up yet again and his brilliant curled strike dipped and bounced just ahead of the goalkeeper to find the back of the net.

It was Portugal's defence that won them the European crown and they held their fort with much ease to walk away with all the three points.

In the other games, France saw off a spirited Luxembourg 3-1 to stay on top of Group A with 13 points while Sweden routed Belarus 4-0 to stay second in the group three points adrift of the leaders. For France, Oliver Giroud scored a brace (28', 77') and Euro Cup 2016 top scorer Antoine Griezmann scored one from the spot in the 37th minute. Luxembourg got one back through Aurelien Joachim's penalty kick in the 34th minute.

For Sweden, in the post-Zlatan era, it was Emil Forsberg who shone the brightest scoring twice in the 19th minute through a penalty and in the 49th minute. Marcus Berg (57') and Isaac Kiese Thelin (77') also got their names on the scoresheet for Sweden.

In a surprise, Belgium were held 1-1 by a gritty Greece where Kostas Mitroglou scored for Greece in the 46th minute while Romelu Lukaku rescued Belgium in the 89th minute. Belgium definitely missed the midfield creativity of Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard as they struggled to fire even against a 10-men Greece. Despite the draw, Belgium sit atop Group H with 13 points while Greece stay second with 11 points.

In the same group, Bosnia and Herzegovina thrashed Gibraltar 5-0 to come close at the third spot with 10 points. Vedad Ibisevic (4', 43'), Avdija Vrsajevic (52'), Edin Visca (56') and Ermin Bicakcic (90'+4') got their names on the scoresheet.

The other shocker was Netherlands losing 2-0 to Bulgaria where Spas Delev scored twice in the 5th and the 20th minute to down the Dutch.

Post failing to qualify for the European Championship last year, Netherlands find themselves in a spot of bother yet again sitting fourth in Group A with just seven points from 5 games.