World European Preliminaries-Portugal VS Ireland: Ronaldo still has speed and will make history in the next World Cup

223 games, the number of international matches played this century, Ronaldo is far ahead, followed by Messi's 223 games.

What fans are most concerned about is whether Ronaldo can participate in the 2026 World Cup. If he participates, he will become the first person to participate in six World Cups.

Riyadh Victory coach Jorge Jesus revealed at the Portuguese Football Summit, "Cristiano Ronaldo is 40 years old. In the game, he is the second fastest player on the team and has the third most sprints."

Regarding the question "Does Portugal have the ambition to win the 2026 World Cup?", Portugal coach Martinez replied: "The first priority is to strive to advance to the 2026 World Cup." In the World Cup, we will move forward step by step. Many national teams may win the World Cup because they have won the World Cup in the past. Therefore, the former World Cup champion teams have a psychological advantage. This is something we must strive to catch up with. We must achieve the same self-confidence. "

With Martinez's character, as long as Ronaldo himself does not propose to withdraw from the national team, he will definitely be taken to the 2026 World Cup.

Portugal VS Ireland

Nature of the match: Round 3 of Group F of the European Group Stage of the World Cup

Match time: October 12, 2:45

In the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers in Europe, Portugal is in the same group as Hungary, Ireland, and Armenia. It should be said that the luck is quite good.

Hungary was once the top powerhouse in world football, but that was in the 1950s. The Hungarian team, which had passing stars such as Puskas and Kocsis, was invincible in the early 1950s. It defeated England 6:3 at Wembley, breaking the myth of the originator of modern football that "the country has been undefeated for 90 years." In four years, they only lost one game, which was an "upset" loss to West Germany in the 1954 World Cup final and missed the championship.

However, nowadays, Hungarian football level is second-rate at best in Europe.

The history of the Irish team has not been as glorious as that of Hungary. In 1990, it qualified for the World Cup for the first time and achieved the quarterfinals, which was also the best result in the World Cup in the history of the team. It was qualified for the World Cup twice after that, and it was in the top 16 in the 1994 and 2002 World Cups. In 1988, he qualified for the European Cup for the first time and participated in the European Cup four times. The best result was the top 16 of the European Cup in 2016.

Armenia, ranked 103rd in the world by FIFA, is naturally the weakest in Group F.

After the first two rounds of Group F, Portugal leads with 6 points with 2 consecutive wins, Armenia ranks second with 3 points from 1 win, 3rd Hungary and last place Ireland both have 1 draw, 1 loss and 1 point, both have a goal difference of -1, and Ireland has scored one less goal than Hungary.

Portugal has 6 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss in the past 10 games in all competitions. In the first round of the World Cup preliminaries, it swept Armenia 5:0 away from home and narrowly defeated Hungary 3:2 away from home in the second round.

In the past 10 games in all competitions, Ireland has 4 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses. In the first round of the World Cup preliminaries, it drew with Hungary 2:2 at home and lost to Armenia 1:2 away from home in the second round.

At present, it seems that Portugal should stand out in this group, while Hungary, Ireland, and Armenia are trapped in a "chain" and may all compete for second place in the group.

Portugal and Ireland have faced each other in the past 5 times. Portugal has the upper hand with 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. The only loss was a friendly match in 2005.

In this battle, Portugal, playing at home, should win without any suspense.