Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Portugal thrashed Uzbekistan on day 13, but the result did not send Portugal soaring through the 2026 World Cup rankings. The win mattered, and it mattered most because Ronaldo was the one delivering it, yet a 5-0 score line does not always produce a dramatic climb when the teams are being measured against one another across 48 World Cup teams.
That is why the re-rankings are drawing attention now. France sits first after beating Iraq 3-0, with Michael Olise setting up two goals and Kylian Mbappe scoring twice for the second match in a row. France booked its place in the knockouts, and it will face Norway on Friday to decide who tops the group, though Didier Deschamps will miss that match after the death of his mother.
Ronaldo’s two goals keep Portugal in the frame, but they do not overwrite the way the rankings are built. Margin matters, yet it is only one part of the calculation, so a heavy win can still leave a team where it already was if the performance does not separate it enough from the pack above. That is the friction inside these rankings: the headline score looks huge, while the movement behind it can be modest.
The rest of the table shows why. Lionel Messi has scored all five of Argentina’s goals in its two wins and became the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer after his double against Austria, while Argentina also kept consecutive clean sheets even as Cristian Romero left that match with a knee injury. Germany beat the Ivory Coast 2-1 after trailing, with Deniz Undav scoring twice off the bench, and secured progression to the knockouts at the top of Group E. Spain beat Saudi Arabia 4-0 with 22 shots, 2.85 xG, and a goal from Lamine Yamal 10 minutes into his first World Cup start, while Mikel Oyarzabal scored twice. England, meanwhile, drew 0-0 with Ghana after beating Croatia 4-2, and it was possible to hear that no one was shouting that it was coming home after the stalemate.
So the answer to the question Ronaldo’s performance raises is simple: it strengthens Portugal, but it does not automatically move the team far enough to change the shape of the ranking board. France is still the benchmark, several sides are already through or close to it, and Portugal now has to wait for the next results to show whether Ronaldo’s brace becomes a bigger turn in the table or just a sharp reminder of how hard it is to climb once the field begins to separate itself.
