Portugal and Mexico are the first two teams with official spots in the FIFA Confederations Cup semi-finals. A Seleccao Das Quinas will play on Wednesday, while El Tri will fight for a ticket to the Final match on Thursday, and before they face either Chile or Germany, there are a few talking points after their last games in this group stage.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Joao Moutinho, Héctor Herrera and the Portuguese National Team gave fans a few headlines to talk about. Have a look at all of them.
CR7 needs two goals to match Pele's goals with the Braziian NT
The Portuguese ace, who was named Man of the Match for his contribution against New Zealand, scored the opening goal with a penalty kick. This was CR7's 75th goal for his country, good enough to match Hungarian Sandor Kocsis' tally as the second best striker in European National Teams. In case you were wondering, Brazilian legend scored 77 for Brazil, so, the Portuguese captain can be considered among the all-time best strikers.
Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal:
— SPORF (@Sporf) June 24, 2017
Games: 142
Goals: 75
Right Foot: 35
Left Foot: 19
Headers: 21
Goal-scoring machine pic.twitter.com/QGKUFPZmg7
Hector Herrera's long pass gives Mexico the win
Mexico's comeback win had a key member: Héctor Herrera. FC Porto's midfielder managed to hand out two assists for El Tri, including the longest assist in three FIFA Confederations Cup editions. Furthermore, Herrera joins Germán Villa, Pavel Pardo and Cuauhtemoc Blanco for being Mexican players with two or more assists in a FIFA Confederations Cup game.
"Herrera's 54-meter assist is the longest in the two most recent editions of the FIFA Confederations Cup"
54 metros fue el pase de Héctor Herrera para Hirving Lozano en el 2do gol de México, es la asistencia más larga en las últimas 2 #ConfedCup pic.twitter.com/GW1HkrIRSR
— ESPN Datos (@ESPNDatos) June 24, 2017
Joao Moutinho joins exclusive list with the Portuguese National Team
Monaco's midfielder was handed one more starting nod with the European champions, and he reached 100 caps while at it. He's the second player to reach that number in the current FIFA Confederations Cup, and the fifth Portuguese player to play 100+ games with the National Team.
Most caps for @selecaoportugal:
— Shot on Goal (@shotongoalx) June 24, 2017
142 - @Cristiano
127 - @LuisFigo
110 - Fernando Couto
109 - @luisnani
100 - @JoaoMoutinho#NZLPOR
Portugal's unbeaten streak keeps going and going
The current European champions seem to be thriving in this competition, and their win against New Zealand cemented an interesting streak while playing international tournaments.
Portugal's recent record at international tournaments:
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) June 24, 2017
DDDWWWWDWW
Goals: 16
Conceded: 7
Clean sheets: 6
So difficult to beat. pic.twitter.com/ewg9GX0iH8