Rio Ferdinand makes Cristiano Ronaldo point as ex-Manchester United star topples Erling Haaland

Former Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand has hailed Cristiano Ronaldo's goalscoring exploits after the forward scored twice in Portugal's 5-0 European Championship qualifier against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Ronaldo struck a brace in the victory, with Manchester United man Bruno Fernandes also on target. Ronaldo's double came a matter of days after he'd scored two in a win over Slovakia.

His four goals in as many days mean he has now scored 127 times for his country, who have booked their spot in next summer's European Championship and have won all eight of their group games. Ronaldo left Old Trafford last year in controversial fashion and subsequently signed for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.

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He ended without a trophy in his first season but continued to score goals and this term led Al-Nassr to Arab Club Champions Cup glory. Ronaldo has 10 league goals this term and his scoring exploits have not gone unnoticed by Ferdinand, who pointed out the Portugal great's tally compared to Manchester City striker Erling Haaland and PSG superstar Kylian Mbappe.

Ferdinand's post read: "Cristiano in 2023: 43 games, 40 goals, nine assists. He's now the year's top scorer worldwide, overtaking Erling Haaland (39) and Kylian Mbappe (35)." Ferdinand supplemented the post with a goat emoji.

Portugal's 5-0 win over Bosnia also saw Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix on target with all the goals coming in the first half. Slovakia kept themselves in a strong position to secure runners-up spot with a 1-0 win in Luxembourg courtesy of David Duris’ goal with 13 minutes left. Iceland beat Liechtenstein 4-0 in Reykjavik, where Gylfi Sigurdsson