Cristiano Ronaldo was recognised as football’s all-time leading goalscorer after firing Juventus to Italian Super Cup glory against Napoli.
Portugal international Ronaldo registered the 760th strike of a remarkable career in the 64th minute to help reigning Serie A champions Juve claim the trophy with a 2-0 win.
The 35-year-old former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward moved one goal ahead of Czech player Josef Bican, who officially managed 759 strikes between 1931 and 1955.
There is some dispute, however, with some sources crediting Bican with 805 goals, while putting Romario on 772 and Pele on 767.
What was certain was that Ronaldo’s latest strike helped him to another honour with Juve.
Lorenzo Insigne had a chance to ruin Ronaldo’s milestone moment but missed an 80th-minute penalty before Alvaro Morata wrapped up the win for Andrea Pirlo’s side deep into stoppage time.
Elsewhere in Italy, sixth-placed Atalanta salvaged a 1-1 Serie A draw at Udinese after Colombia striker Luis Muriel cancelled out a first-minute opener from former Watford midfielder Roberto Pereyra.
Bayern Munich remain four points clear at the top of the Bundesliga following an unconvincing 1-0 success away to Augsburg.
Robert Lewandowski, the division’s leading scorer, claimed his 22nd league goal of the campaign by converting a 13th-minute penalty.
The hosts squandered a golden chance to snatch a point as Alfred Finnbogason missed from the spot 14 minutes from time.
RB Leipzig climbed to second after Sweden international Emil Forsberg earned them a 1-0 victory over Union Berlin.
At the other end of the table, Schalke remain rock bottom after conceding a dramatic stoppage-time winner in the 2-1 loss to fellow strugglers Cologne.
Matthew Hoppe cancelled out Rafael Czichos’ opener to level for the hosts but Jan Thielmann struck at the death to inflict defeat.
Cologne, however, remain in the relegation zone after Fabian Klos, an own goal from Marc-Oliver Kempf and Ritsu Doan gave Arminia Bielefeld a thumping 3-0 win over Stuttgart.
In Wednesday’s other game, Keven Schlotterbeck’s second-half own goal secured Eintracht Frankfurt a 2-2 draw at Freiburg. Roland Sallai and Nils Petersen had turned the contest in the home side’s favour following Amin Younes’ early opener.
In Spain, Villarreal missed the chance to go third in LaLiga after Paco Alcacer missed an stoppage-time penalty in the 2-2 draw with Granada.
Alcacer’s failure from 12 yards, following the dismissal of Yan Eteki, prevented the hosts moving above his former club Barcelona.
Veteran striker Roberto Soldado and Chelsea loanee Kenedy earned Granada a point by scoring either side of Ruben Pena’s goal and Mario Gomez’s spot-kick.
Sergio Canales’ brace cancelled out Santi Mina’s goal to give Real Betis a 2-1 success over Celta Vigo, while Huesca remain bottom after a second-half strike from Mauro Arambarri condemned them to a 1-0 defeat at Getafe.
In France, Lens moved to within a point of sixth-placed Marseille courtesy of Simon Banza’s second-half goal securing a 1-0 win at the Stade Velodrome.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel