DORTMUND, Germany – Ronaldo broke free early, flashed past Ghana’s flailing goalkeeper and poked the ball into the net.

With one swift move in the fifth minute Tuesday, the superstar striker overtook German Gerd Mueller as the greatest scorer in World Cup history, spoiled Ghana’s scrappy debut and put defending champion Brazil into its fourth straight quarterfinals.

“I want to continue to increase the record,” Ronaldo said, “but without forgetting that the main goal in the World Cup is winning the title.”

Brazil had to work for its 3-0 win over the Black Stars, who pressured enough to create chances but kept shooting either just off the mark or well within reach of goalkeeper Dida.

“Today’s game was as we expected,” Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said. “It wasn’t easy and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy, 3-0 seems easy, but it wasn’t.”

The Brazilians used long, penetrating passes to build each of its goals, but Ronaldo’s tournament-record 15th was the only one it would need. With its 11th straight tournament win, Brazil took another step toward a fourth straight World Cup finals, and next faces the winner of France-Spain.

“The big guys are coming to the quarterfinals,” Parreira said. “It is getting closer and closer. It’s getting tougher and tougher.”

On the counterattack, Kaka sent a second long pass up the heart of the field to an unmarked Ronaldo, who touched the ball once toward Richard Kingson, then sent the goalkeeper flailing with a brilliant stepover move. Ronaldo cut left, and with a defender closing, popped the ball into the net.

Ronaldo said he never intended to break the World Cup scoring record – it came to him.

“It was never my goal, it just happened match after match,” he said. “This is the result of lots of work, lots of sacrifice.”

Mueller scored his 14 goals over 13 games in the 1970 and 1974 World Cups; Ronaldo has played 18 games in the past three tournaments.