"Another victory, another step towards our goal, another historic night defending our colours! Everything becomes easier when we play at home and in front of an audience that cheers us from the first to the last minute," said Cristiano Ronaldo on social media.

At Estádio Algarve, the captain of the Portuguese national team scored after eight, 13 and 87 minutes, the first two penalties, to reach 801 goals, on the day he played his 1,103rd official match since his debut for Sporting, on 14 August 2002.

On that day, 17-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo started the Champions League third qualifying round first leg against Inter Milan on the bench, coming on as a 58th-minute substitute for Spain's Toñito in a game that ended 0-0.

His first goal came in his seventh game in 2002/03, on 7 October 2002, when he scored twice against Moreirense, in the sixth round of the Portuguese championship, with goals in the 34th and 90+5 minutes, in a 3-0 victory.

It was the first two of a total of 800, more than half of which were achieved in the Real Madrid shirt: 451 in 438 games, an impressive record that makes Ronaldo the top scorer in the history of the 'merengues'.

In nine seasons, from 2009/10 to 2017/18, the Portuguese overthrew all the legends of the most titled club in the world, such as Emilio Butragueño, Francisco Gento, Hugo Sánchez, Ferenc Puskás, Carlos Santillana, 'dom' Alfredo Di Stéfano and Raúl González.

It is unquestionably one of the greatest achievements of the Madeiran footballer's professional career, now in his 20th season as a senior.

Before joining Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo became a world star with Manchester United (2002/03 and 2008/09), to whom he has now returned, scoring 123 goals in 298 appearances, including five this season.

The footballer born on 5 February 1985 has a long career serving the Portuguese national team, for which he has already scored 115 goals in 182 matches.

At international level, no player has scored as much as Ronaldo, who rose to the top in 2021: he equalled the Iranian Ali Daei in the final phase of the postponed Euro2020, against France (2-2), and then surpassed him with a 'bis' against Ireland (2-1), in a qualifying match for the final phase of the 2022 World Cup.

He has now scored more than 100 goals for Real Madrid, Manchester United, the Portuguese national team and Juventus, for whom he scored 101 goals in 134 games.

Ronaldo joined Juve in 2018/19 and even represented the Italian side in the opening game of the 2021/22 Serie A season at Udinese (2-2) before his return to the Red Devils was confirmed on 27 August.

The Portuguese forward's other goals as a professional have come for Sporting (five in 31 matches in 2002/03) and for the national teams at Under-21 level (three in 10 in 2002/03), U-20 (one in five in 2002/03) and Olympic (two in three in 2004/05).

In total, he scored 801 goals in 1,103 games, and if we add up only the games with the main teams, national teams and clubs, the record is 795 goals in 1,083 games.