CRISTIANO Ronaldo became the most capped men’s player in football history and Harry Kane broke England’s international goals record tonight as the qualifying campaign for Euro 2024 kicked off.
Both strikers led their sides to victories while making individual history, with Ronaldo scoring twice in Portugal’s 4-0 win over Liechtenstein and Kane netting in England’s 2-1 victory over Italy in Naples.
Ronaldo, 38, made his 197th appearance during tonight’s match, surpassing Bader Al-Mutawa of Kuwait, who previously held the record for most international caps in the history of men’s football.
The Al Nassr of Saudi Arabia forward marked the occasion with Portugal’s third and fourth goals tonight, converting a penalty and a direct free-kick to take his record international goals tally to 120.
Joao Cancelo and Bernardo Silva scored Portugal’s first two goals to get Roberto Martinez’s tenure off to a winning start in qualifying Group J.
At the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Kane struck from the penalty spot to give England a 2-0 lead after Declan Rice’s opening goal in the Group C encounter.
Italy cut the deficit in half through Argentina-born debutant Mateo Retegui early in the second half, but the Three Lions held on for a rare win against the Azzurri despite Luke Shaw’s late sending off.
With his strike, Kane overtook Wayne Rooney as England’s all-time men’s top scorer with 54 goals.
The win was England’s first away to Italy since 1961 and the Azzurri’s first defeat in 41 Euro qualifiers, their last loss coming in September 2006 and last home defeat seven years earlier.
In other Euro 2024 qualifiers tonight, North Macedonia beat Malta 2-1 in Group C, while Denmark and Northern Ireland secured 3-1 and 2-0 victories respectively over Finland and San Marino in Group H.
Slovakia and Luxembourg drew 0-0 in Group J, while Bosnia and Herzegovina defeated Iceland 3-0 in the same group.
