
FARO – Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo scored another treble, moving closer to 100 international goals, as he led the European champions to a 6-0 drubbing of Lithuania in a Euro 2020 qualifier on Thursday.
Ronaldo, whose hat-trick was the 55th of his career and ninth for Portugal, has 98 goals and could become only the second player to score a century for his country after Iran's Ali Daei.
Pizzi, Goncalo Paciencia and Bernardo Silva shared the other goals in the one-sided Group B match.
The European champions, however, were left waiting to secure a place at the finals after Serbia beat Luxembourg 3-2.
Portugal are in second place with 14 points, one ahead of Serbia, and will qualify if they win in Luxembourg on Sunday. Leaders Ukraine have already qualified.