Cristiano Ronaldo wore white for the first time in the group stage

Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo finished the group stage of a major tournament without scoring a single goal for the first time, having lost his first three matches against Portugal at Euro 2024.

Since his debut at Euro 2004, Ronaldo, now 39, has scored in 11 finals, always scoring early in five World Cups, five European Championships and one Confederations Cup.

The current Al Nasr player’s big specialty has always been the group stages, in which he scored 21 of his 24 goals in the final stages, corresponding to 87.5%, with just three goals – all in Europeans – in the knockout matches (12 ,5%).

Ronaldo has more games in the group stage – 34 in total, compared to 20 in the knockout stages – but even so, his average in the first three matches of the competition is much higher – 0.62 goals per game versus 0.15.

At 19, the then Manchester United player scored on his group stage debut against Greece in the opening match of Euro 2004, although his header from Figo’s corner did not prevent defeat (1-2). .

At Euro 2004 he did not score in the remaining group stage matches, but also scored one of his three elimination goals, again with a header from a corner, this time in the semi-finals, against the Netherlands (2–1). .

Two years later, at the 2006 World Cup, he scored in only the second game against Iran (2-0) from the penalty spot, and at Euro 2008 he also scored in only the second game against the Czech Republic (3-1).

They also scored just one goal at the 2010 World Cup, a ridiculous sixth goal for Portugal in a 7-0 defeat to North Korea, also in the second game, and at Euro 2012 they scored twice against the Netherlands (2-1). in the third game.

Two goals against the Dutch secured passage to the quarter-finals, in which they again scored against the Czech Republic (1-0), taking the Portuguese team to the semi-finals.

In Brazil, at the 2014 World Cup, many things did not work out, until in the third game they beat Ghana in a victory (2-1), which did not avoid relegation, and at Euro 2016 they also waited until the third game, then scored twice against Hungary (3-3 ).

Then, in the semi-final, en route to the title, he scored his final knockout goal, again with a header, against Wales (2-0).

Thanks to the victory at Euro 2016, sealed by Eder in extra time in the final against hosts France (1-0), Portugal took part in the 2017 Confederations Cup, where Ronaldo scored in the second game against Russia (1-0) and in the third against New Zealand (4-0).

At the 2018 World Cup he scored a hat-trick on debut against Spain, including a penalty and a free-kick to complete the final score 3–3, as well as a goal against Morocco (1–0), and at Euro 2020 he played in the 2021 team. blamed for the Covid-19 pandemic, scored in all three games.

Bisu scored once against Hungary (3-0) via penalties against Germany (2-4) and scored twice, both from penalties, against France (2-2).

He made his debut at the 2022 World Cup with a penalty against Ghana in a 3-2 win, while he has made seven consecutive final-stage appearances for the Whites. he has not scored again in Qatar 2022 in four games, and is also yet to win at Euro 2024.

In his sixth European final he played the full 90 minutes against the Czech Republic (2-1), also played the full time against Turkey, assisting Bruno Fernandes in the 3-0 final, and played until the 66th minute against Georgia (0-0). . 2).

His next chance to score will be in Monday’s Euro 2024 round of 16 against Jan Oblak’s Slovenia in Frankfurt, Germany, where he is certain to be in the eleven, as he was in the three group stage games.