Ronaldo reaches century of international goals for Portugal
Stockholm: Add 100 international goals to the extraordinary list of milestones achieved by soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.
The 35-year-old Ronaldo become just the second male player to reach a century of goals for a national team when he curled a free kick into the top corner from 25 meters for the first of his two strikes in Portugal's 2-0 away win against Sweden in the Nations League on Tuesday.
Scoring one of the best goals of his international career was a fitting way to enter the "100 Club," where he joins former Iran striker Ali Daei, and he wheeled away in delight in an empty Friends Arena in Stockholm before performing his trademark celebration the mid-air pirouette.
Ronaldo, who was playing in his 165th game for Portugal, then added a second goal another curler into the top corner and needs nine more to surpass the international record of 109 scored by Daei from 1993-2006.
The five-time world player of the year already holds the record for goals in the Champions League with 131 16 more than nearest rival Lionel Messi and has now scored an international goal for the 17th straight calendar year.
Portugal has won its two opening group games after beating Croatia 4-1 on Saturday, when Ronaldo was absent because of a toe infection.
Belgium and France also have maximum points. The top-ranked Belgians beat Iceland 5-1 and France defeated Croatia 4-2 the same scoreline as the 2018 World Cup final.
England drew 0-0 at Denmark in Copenhagen.
GIROUD NEARS RECORD
Oliver Giroud moved to within one goal of Michel Platini's national record for France by converting a penalty to complete the victory over Croatia at the Stade de France.
The striker was handed the opportunity to move onto 40 international goals by Antoine Griezmann, who gave away penalty duties having missed his last three for France. Giroud made no mistake in the 77th minute.
A well-taken individual goal by center back Dejan Lovren put Croatia ahead, but Anthony Martial set up Griezmann for the equalizer before sliding in for a shot that hit the post, struck goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic on the back of the head, and rebounded into the net.
Martial, starting for France for the first time since March 2018, was only in the lineup because Kylian Mbapp was missing after testing positive for the coronavirus on Monday.
Josip Brekalo made it 2-2, only for defender Dayot Upamecano to regain the lead for France before Giroud's penalty.
Eduardo Camavinga came on for his France debut during the second half, becoming the youngest player to represent France since the second world war at 17 years, 10 months.
DE BRUYNE CELEBRATES
Kevin De Bruyne celebrated becoming English football's player of the year by setting up two of Belgium's goals in its comeback win over Iceland.
The Manchester City midfielder didn't get on the scoresheet, though, with striker Michy Batshuayi netting in either half and Axel Witsel, Dries Mertens and Jeremy Doku also scoring.
Iceland had gone in front through Holmbert Aron Fridjonsson.
Belgium began Group 2 play with a 2-0 win at Denmark on Saturday.
ENGLAND HELD
A difficult few days for England coach Gareth Southgate ended with his team being held to a tame draw against Denmark, though Harry Kane came close to snatching victory when his late shot was cleared off the line.
England was without highly rated youngsters Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden, who were sent home for breaching coronavirus rules in Reykjavik after making their international debuts in the 1-0 win over Iceland on Saturday.
Video posted on social media video appeared to show the players meeting women from outside the team bubble.
Midfielder Kalvin Phillips and center back Conor Coady started for their England debuts, while attacking midfielder Jack Grealish came on in the second half for his debut.
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Congress leadership asks Deputy CM Shivakumar to continue, say sources
Bengaluru (PTI): The power tussle and squabbling in the ruling Congress in Karnataka has subsided for the time being as the party high command told the Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar to continue as the party state unit chief, Congress sources said on Sunday.
Shivakumar along with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was on a two-day visit to New Delhi on last Thursday and Friday where they had a meeting with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The meeting assumes significance as a campaign has begun to replace Shivakumar as the party state president.
Several MLAs and Ministers believed to be from Siddaramaiah camp want Shivakumar to discontinue as the Congress state chief.
They have been demanding the strict adherence of the party policy of 'one person, one post'.
Since Shivakumar is the state Deputy Chief Minister and Congress president, his rivals in the party have been demanding his removal.
The argument is also that a person holding a ministerial position cannot do justice to the state president's post as he cannot give time to the party cadres willing to meet him.
Party high command is not keen on replacing Shivakumar considering his immense contribution to the party especially in winning the assembly elections, good performance of parry during Lok Sabha elections and in winning all three assembly bypolls, the sources said.
"The party high command was not inclined to replace Shivakumar at least till November and December this year," a senior party functionary told PTI.
There are reports about a secret pact that Siddaramaiah would helm the first half of the Congress' five-year tenure in Karnataka, who will be replaced by Shivakumar.
Neither Siddaramaiah, nor Shivakumar have confirmed this but their supporter ministers and MLAs in the party have started lobbying for their leaders.
There were also discussions on Cabinet reshuffle, MLC elections and honey trap attempts on ministers and MLAs, the sources said.
According to them, cabinet reshuffle is not on the cards as of now.
Another party office-bearer said the Congress high command has left the selection of candidates for the MLC election to Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar.
Regarding the honey trap issue, Congress top sources said Rahul Gandhi was upset with the way it was raised.
"Gandhi was of the opinion that it shouldn't have been discussed inside the assembly, especially by Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna," a source said.
Rajanna had raised the issue inside the Karnataka Assembly. He even claimed that at least 48 MLAs have been honey-trapped.
The Minister got backing from state Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi who too stated that honey trap attempts were made on some ministers and MLAs.
About a fortnight ago, Rajanna had been to New Delhi to apprise the party high command how honeytrap attempts were made.
