Cristiano Ronaldo can take a special free-kick, but he’s hardly a free-kick specialist.
The Portugal captain hit the post with his penalty against Austria on Saturday night in Paris, but his accuracy from free-kicks will be of further concern to Portuguese supporters.
Ronaldo has played in the European Championships in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016, the World Cup in 2006, 2010 and 2014 and has taken 36 free-kicks across the seven tournaments. He has failed to score with any of them.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo’s Real Madrid teammate Gareth Bale has played in just one international tournament – Euro 2016 – has taken three free-kicks and scored with two of them for Wales.
Gary Lineker highlighted the discrepancy between the pair’s record following Portugal’s goalless draw with Austria.
Update….Ronaldo: no goals from 36 free kicks in major tournaments. Bale: 2 goals from 3 free kicks in major tournaments.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 18, 2016
Bale has aped Ronaldo’s “knuckleball” technique, and appears to have bettered it. Although Joe Hart played a helping hand in the Wales’ forward’s impressive strike rate.
Such a statistic would probably make for great dressing room ‘banter’, but we reckon Bale would be best served to keep it to himself when he and Ronaldo report back for club duty.
