The race for tickets to the Qatar 2022 World Cup began with a record-breaking thrilling victory for Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo on Wednesday night.

Having previously made the headlines with his return to Manchester United in the recently closed summer transfer window, the 36-year-old scored two late stunners to help his national team secure a 2-1 victory over Ireland in their World Cup qualifying match.

Ronaldo who went into this game with 109 goals, levelled on the roll of honour with Iran’s Ali Daei is now in front of the Iranian with 111 goals from 180 games for his country.

He is now 103 goals clear of the combined total mustered by Ireland’s starting XI after the game.

Meanwhile, Antoine Greizmann rescued defending World Champions, France, from a defeat against Bosnia and Herzegovina while Kazakhstan stunned Ukraine in a dramatic 2-2 encounter.

About 35 goals were scored in the 13 group matches played on Wednesday with Israel scoring more in their 4-0 victory of Faroe Island.

See Wednesday’s European 2022 World Cup qualifying results below:

Wednesday, September 1

Group A

• Luxembourg 2 (Pinto 8, Rodrigues 28-pen) Azerbaijan 1 (Makhmudov 67)

• Portugal 2 (Ronaldo 89, 90+6) Republic of Ireland 1 (Egan 45)

Group D

• Kazakhstan 2 (Valiullin 74, 90+6) Ukraine 2 (Yaremchuk 2, Sikan 90+3)

• France 1 (Griezmann 40) Bosnia and Herzegovina 1 (Dzeko 36)

Group F

• Faroe Islands 0 Israel 4 (Zahavi 12, 44, 90+2, Dabbur 52)

• Moldova 0 Austria 2 (Baumgartner 45+1, Arnautovic 90+4)

• Denmark 2 (Wass 14, Maehle 15) Scotland 0

Group G

• Latvia 3 (Gutkovskis 50-pen, 85, Ciganiks 89) Gibraltar 1 (De Barr 71-pen)

• Norway 1 (Haaland 20) Netherlands 1 (Klaassen 37)

• Turkey 2 (Under 9, Yazici 31) Montenegro 2 (Marusic 40, Radunovic 90+7)

Group H

• Malta 3 (Attard 44, 54, Mbong 46) Cyprus 0

• Slovenia 1 (Stojanovic 42) Slovakia 1 (Bozenik 32)

• Russia 0 Croatia 0