LONDON: While Cristiano Ronaldo kept moving up Europe’s all-time scorers list on Saturday, a demoralising loss to Bulgaria endangered the Netherlands’ World Cup qualification.
Ronaldo moved into fourth place on the all-time scorers list for European nations with two goals in Portugal’s 3-0 win over Hungary as the European champions stayed in second spot behind Switzerland in Group ‘B’.
Ronaldo’s 70 in 137 appearances trail only Miroslav Klose (71), Sandor Kocsis (75) and Ferenc Puskas (84).
The Netherlands’ hopes of reaching the World Cup finals suffered a major setback when the three-time runners-up slumped to a shock 2-0 defeat to Bulgaria.
The loss left the Dutch six points behind Group ‘A’ leaders France, who beat Luxembourg 3-1, and down in fourth spot, three back from Sweden and two off Bulgaria with just the group winners guaranteed a place in the 2018 finals in Russia.
“What can I tell you? We came here with good intentions, but it has become a nightmare,” Dutch skipper Arjen Robben said.
Elsewhere, Belgium needed a goal two minutes from time by Romelu Lukaku to salvage a 1-1 draw against nine-man Greece as they stayed two points clear in Group ‘H’, although Roberto Martinez’s team lost their 100 percent record in the process.
In Lisbon, Portugal saw off Hungary, a team they shared six goals with at Euro 2016.
The win kept Portugal in second place in their group, three points behind Switzerland, who earlier preserved their 100 percent record with a fifth win in five games, a 1-0 home victory against Latvia.
Porto striker Andre Silva opened the scoring after 30 minutes, converting a pass from Raphael Guerreiro for his fifth goal in six games for Portugal.
Six minutes later, skipper Ronaldo doubled the lead with a superb left-footed finish and the Real Madrid superstar made it 3-0 on 65 minutes with a clever free-kick.