Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest goalscorers of all time. He is the leading scorer in international soccer with 128 goals in 204 appearances for Portugal. While his goal scoring exploits are well documented, there isn’t much noise about the countries who have managed to contain the striker on the international stage.
Cristiano Ronaldo has faced 70 different teams in his international career. Among these, he has scored against 47 countries, while 23 countries have managed to keep the forward off the scoresheet. While Luxembourg, Sweden, and Lithuania have conceded 25 goals to Ronaldo. There are teams like Italy, Uruguay, and Brazil that have successfully defended against Ronaldo.
Cristiano Ronaldo with literally no help against Brazil in 2010 World Cuppic.twitter.com/SJ91WIofiD
— Omar 🇦🇪 (@LosB1ancos_) November 23, 2022
The other 20 countries are – Algeria, Angola, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Georgia, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Mozambique, Norway, South Africa, South Korea, USA, Cape Verde, North Macedonia, England, Turkey and Albania.
On a closer look, there are many heavyweights among these 23 countries such as England, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Uruguay. The English and Brazilian have been quite impressive by restricting Ronaldo to zero goals, in three games apiece. Italy and Uruguay have played Ronaldo twice and got away with zero goals.
Toughest international opponent of Cristiano Ronaldo
There are many minnows in these 23 times, but special focus should be on Albania. The southeastern European side has faced Cristiano Ronaldo four times and has managed to keep four clean sheets against the deadliest goalscorer.
The first time Ronaldo faced Albania was back in 2003, he featured in the match for 45 minutes in a 5-3 victory but didn’t score a goal. The next two meetings came in the World Cup qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Ronaldo played the full 90 minutes in both matches but failed to score again.
Ronaldo will never score against Albania 💪🇦🇱 pic.twitter.com/2G73ql0xpz
— Samuel🇦🇱 (@Samuel_footy06) June 14, 2022
Portugal faced Albania in 2014 and lost in a European qualifier, however, Ronaldo was not in the side due to a thigh problem. The next meeting came in qualifiers for the 2016 UEFA Euro. Portugal came on top with a 1-0 scoreline, but Ronaldo didn’t score.
The final meeting came in 2015 in the away match in the group stage of the 2016 UEFA Euro qualifiers. Ronaldo played the full 90 minutes again and led the side as captain, but couldn’t score against the minnows.
In every sport, there are certain teams against which greats usually suffer. For Messi, it’s USA and Qatar, for Ronaldo it’s Albania. This absurd record is often brought up in soccer trivia but apart from that it’s just a minor blip in the illustrious career of Cristiano Ronaldo.