Ian Wright did not spare Cristiano Ronaldo on Sunday evening after Portugal’s elimination against Belgium (1-0). The former attacker openly questioned the star player’s direct free kicks, which never actually score goals. Ronaldo has never scored from a free kick in a European Championship, despite 28 attempts since his debut at the 2004 European Championship in his own country.
“How often does Ronaldo actually score from the free kicks? I read somewhere that out of 50 only 1 was successful”, Wright wondered halfway through the meeting in the eighth final of the European Championship in the studio of ITV. “It has become a bit of a myth. When Ronaldo builds, everyone is like: watch out everyone. But nothing ever happens.” Fellow analyst Patrick Vieira praised Thibaut Courtois’ role in Ronaldo’s first-half free kick that nearly delivered the opening goal. “You also expect that he would have that ball. To concede a goal in this way would have been very bad. But it was a good save from Courtois.”
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
Wright clearly disagreed with Vieira’s reading. “Do you mean that free kick? Courtois has plenty of time to act. And it is Ronaldo, who rarely scores from a free kick,” said the former Arsenal and England striker. Since the start of the 2017/18 season, Ronaldo has only had two successes from direct free kicks, with the last goal dating back to the thirtieth round of the 2019/20 season. In the shirt of Portugal, the 36-year-old attacker last managed to find the net with a free kick in September 2020.
Ronaldo has never scored from a free kick at a European Championship, despite 28 attempts in total. In the five European Championships that he has been active so far, the Portuguese placed no less than four times more than, for example, Andrea Pirlo and Deco. At World Cups, Ronaldo has only scored once with a free kick, against Spain (3-3) in the group stage of the 2018 World Cup.
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