Cristiano Ronaldo's 'Hunger Makes Him The Best In The World,' Says Mario Rui

Mario Rui has hailed Portugal teammate Cristiano Ronaldo as the "best in the world" after his stunning performance against Lithuania.

The Juventus superstar, 34, scored a hat-trick in his side's 6-0 demolition of Lithuania in their Euro 2020 qualifying match on Thursday.

And Ronaldo also took his goalscoring international tally to 98, which puts him within 11 goals of Iran legend Ali Daei's world-record 109 goals.

Napoli left-back Rui has insisted that the Portugal captain's "hunger" proves why he continues to push himself to be the best in the sport.

"He is the best in the world, never tired of winning, wanting more, and it is this hunger that makes him what he is," the 28-year-old told Portuguese newspaper A Bola.

"We are happy to have him on the team and I hope he will continue to give us joy as he has done so far."

Fernando Santos' men put on a clinical exhibition against Lithuania as Ronaldo put his side 2-0 up before half-time.

And the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star capped off his performance by adding his third in the second half.

Pizzi, Goncalo Paciencia and Bernardo Silva all added their names to the scoresheet to put the defending Euro champions one step closer to qualification.

Portugal boss Santos praised Ronaldo after the match by saying that he is "never surprised" at what the five-time Ballon d'Or winner pulls out of the bag.

"A lot of people were asking about Cristiano -- what I said was that he was able to play, that Cristiano was fine," he said.

"It [his performance] didn't surprise me. In fact, I am never surprised by Cristiano, I assure you.

"So, scoring a hat-trick was perfectly normal."

Ukraine dominate Group B on 19 points, while Portugal are second on 14 points and are one point ahead of third-placed Serbia.

Santos' side can guarantee their place for Euro 2020 with a win over Luxembourg on Sunday.

But Rui has warned Portugal that their away trip for the final Euro 2020 qualifier won't be easy.

"Mathematically, we know it is not [guaranteed] yet," he explained.

"We will face a tough team, Luxembourg, we still had that confirmation with the result in Serbia [who won 3-2].

"We know it will be a very difficult game, but our goal is to be at Euro 2020 and we will try to bring all three points to Portugal."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Football News, Football, Euro 2020, Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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