Sunil Chhetri overtakes Lionel Messi, now only Cristiano Ronaldo is ahead Sunil Chhetri surpasses Messi to become second highest international goal scorer

New Delhi:

Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri on Monday surpassed Argentine legend Lionel Messi to achieve a major achievement. Chhetri scored 2 goals against Bangladesh in the combined qualifiers of FIFA World Cup 2022 and Asian Cup 2023 and single-handedly led the team to victory. With this, the number of international goals in the name of this 36-year-old veteran has gone up to 74, which is 2 more than Lionel Messi. At the same time, after 20 years, the Indian team has won the World Cup qualifier outside the home ground.

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Chhetri scored 74th international goal

Chhetri opened the team’s account with a goal in the 79th minute, then another goal in the last minute (90+2 minutes) ensured the team’s 2-0 win in Group E match. In the second half of the match, Chhetri converted Ashiq Kurunian’s cross into the goal with a brilliant header, which took Indian coach Igor Stimac’s breath away. Chhetri didn’t stop there as he scored his 74th international goal and scored 3 points for the Indian team in the final moments ahead of Suresh Singh.

Which player scored how many goals?

Among the players currently active in international football, Chhetri is the second highest goal scorer behind Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (103). The Indian captain has played 117 matches to score so many goals, while Ronaldo has played 173 matches to score 103 goals. Messi has scored 72 goals in 143 matches in his international career so far.

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Expectations of qualifying in the third round increased

Coming to the match, this win has boosted the Indian team’s hopes of qualifying directly for the third round of the Asian Qualifiers. The top three teams in the group table will qualify directly for the third round of the Asian Cup Qualifiers. However, the team is already out of the race to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.