Ten years and two months after Cristiano Ronaldo’s treble gave Portugal a 3-2 win in Armenia in Euro 2016 qualifying, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner struck again in the fixture as the Selecao started their World Cup qualifying campaign by surging to a 4-0 lead in Yerevan.
Ronaldo stabbed in Chelsea winger Pedro Neto’s delivery from the right after 21 minutes and added a spectacular second from distance a minute after half-time.
The 40-year-old’s new Al-Nassr teammate, Joao Felix, headed in the 10th-minute opener from a cross by Al-Hilal wideman Joao Cancelo’s, who made the scoreline 3-0 in the 32nd minute, hammering in a first-time left-footed finish from inside the box.
Cristiano Ronaldo goals vs Andorra
Ronaldo has decided the result in three of the previous four editions of the fixture since 2007, scoring the only goal in 2014 and the equaliser in a 1-1 draw 18 years ago.
The Portugal captain now has 140 international goals and 942 in his career as he targets a place at the 2026 Fifa World Cup.
At sixth in Fifa’s rankings, Portugal started as hot favourites and were 99 places above an Armenia side who had lost their last three home games.
Portugal’s 3-1 home win in August 1997 is the only one of the previous six meetings between the countries to have been settled by more than a goal.
A minute’s silence was held before kick-off in Portugal’s first match since the death of their forward, Diogo Jota, and his brother, Andre Silva, in a car crash in July.
Portugal team vs Armenia
Manchester United full-back Diogo Dalot sustained a muscle injury and had his squad place taken by Lazio’s Nuno Tavares for Portugal, who were without widemen Nelson Semedo and Rafael Leao.
Portugal continue their qualifying campaign away to Hungary on Tuesday (19:45 BST / 14:45 ET / 11:45 PT).
Portugal starting XI: Diogo Costa, Joao Cancelo, Ruben Dias, Goncalo Inacio, Nuno Mendes, Joao Neves, Vitinha, Pedro Neto, Bruno Fernandes, Joao Felix, Cristiano Ronaldo
Is Armenia v Portugal on TV? TV channel, online live stream
Kick-off on Saturday was at 17:00 BST (12:00 ET / 09:00 PT), with live coverage on Amazon Prime Video pay-per-view, which charged £2.49 for the game.
Cristiano Ronaldo net worth
Ronaldo’s first Al-Nassr deal was widely reported to be worth £14.75m a month or £3.4m per week. His annual salary was said to be £177m per year, made up of £62m for his football salary, supplemented by commercial bonuses, via financial website Forbes.
Ronaldo was said to have surpassed $1 billion (£771m) in career earnings two years before becoming the most high-profile footballer to move to Saudi Arabia.
The all-time top scorer for Real Madrid has a variety of lucrative sponsorship deals, with his recent endorsements including Whoop, video game UFL and cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
