Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice for Portugal in a 5-0 win over Uzbekistan and became the first player to score at six World Cups. Renato Veiga fits into that record only as a name in the headline; the football story itself belongs to Ronaldo and a result that pushed Portugal close to the last 32.
The first goal arrived in the sixth minute, supplied by Joao Cancelo from a low cross. Ronaldo later peeled off two defenders and finished into the far corner for his second, then shouted, "I’m back, I’m back" into a TV camera after the game.
Roberto Martinez and the spaces
Roberto Martinez had already pointed to the way Ronaldo affects a defence, saying, "Ronaldo opens up spaces in defences," and, "If you look at the last 32 games, he opens up more spaces than any other player." That framing matched the match itself: Uzbekistan had to track him from the first minutes, and Portugal kept finding cleaner routes to goal as the game opened up.
Ronaldo had gone 10 World Cup and European Championship games without scoring before this match, and his last goal had come from a penalty against Ghana in Portugal's opening match at Qatar 2022. He now has 11 World Cup goals, a total that matters because it places this night inside a wider record chase rather than a one-off burst.
Portugal and the last 32
The 5-0 margin left Portugal almost certain to play in the last 32, so the practical value of the night went beyond the record. It gave Portugal a result that protects the tournament position while also letting Ronaldo move past the line shared by every other scorer across six editions of the World Cup.
Abdulla Abdullaev and the rest of the Uzbekistan defence were asked to absorb the full speed of Ronaldo's movement, and the scoreline showed how little margin there was once he found space. Whether Ronaldo keeps playing every minute for Portugal in the rest of the tournament is the next question this run of form raises.
