Ronaldo ´happy and proud´ after goal milestones

Cristiano Ronaldo spoke of his pride after he moved past 500 career goals and equalled Raul’s Real Madrid goalscoring record against Malmo on Wednesday.

The forward scored with a clinical finish after Isco’s pass on 29 minutes before his last-minute close-range strike from Lucas Vazquez’s cross took him to 501 career goals and his Madrid tally to 323 strikes.

That means he is level with Raul at the top of the Santiago Bernabeu scoring charts and did it in 308 games, while the icnonic Raul took 741 matches. 

Ronaldo, 30, has fond memories of playing in Sweden having scored a famous hat-trick in a World Cup qualification play-off for Portugal in 2013 and will now set his sights on breaking the record outright next time out against Atletico Madrid. 

He told BT Sport: “501 goals? It’s not bad, eh! It is a great achievement. 

“I am so happy and so proud to beat this record. It was great to win, which is the most important thing.

“It was great to be here. It is not my first time. I was here playing against Sweden and have fantastic memories when I scored goals, so I am so glad to come here and score again. It is a happy place for me. 

“We have six points and are top of the group, so we are happy. The game was a little bit tough. We knew that Malmo were playing behind the lines of the pitch, so we knew it would be difficult.

“But I think the team played good, we controlled the game over 90 minutes and we scored two goals, so we are happy. It is not easy to play here. The pitch is a little bit small, but it was good.”