Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo is well renowned as one of the greatest goal-scorers of all-time, but there is one aspect of his game that has fallen off a bit as of late.
In his club career, Ronaldo has scored a multitude of memorable free-kick goals.
One could pinpoint his impressive free-kick goal against FC Bayern Munich in the 2013/2014 UEFA Champions League semifinals as a prime example of why he is among the most revered players ever in this area of attacking play.
However, Ronaldo has failed to replicate this success over with the Portuguese national team.
Over the last two editions of the Euros, Ronaldo attempted an astounding 15 free-kicks, and none of them wound up hitting the back of the net.
More so, as noted by Opta, Ronaldo has scored zero goals from 28 career free-kick attempts in this competition.
28 – Since his EURO debuts in 2004, Cristiano Ronaldo has fired 28 free kick shots, at least four times more than any other player over the period, while converting none of them. Lock. #EURO2020 #BELPOR pic.twitter.com/xtQ3JLS1jz
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) June 27, 2021
Over in his World Cup career, Ronaldo has notched a mere one free-kick goal from 24 such attempts, which was the memorable late game-tying goal against Spain in the last edition of this competition.
Ronaldo may not be an expert in scoring standout free-kick goals at the international level, but this surely does not take away from the fact that he is well established as one of the most lethal goal-scorers that the sport has ever seen.