The shot into the hand of the Czech goalkeeper in the opening match of Euro 2024 left Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo unable to celebrate a free kick in the tournament.
In the 58th minute, Portugal received a free kick from 24 meters away, at an almost frontal angle. Bruno Fernandes and Ronaldo initially stood in front of the ball, then the captain pointed and ordered his youngsters to step aside. The 39-year-old forward took a few steps away from the ball, opened his mouth wide, took a deep breath and then shouted something before running and kicking it into the center of the goal. But goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek caught the shot.
According to ESPN , it was Ronaldo’s 29th free kick in the European Championship, since his debut in 2004, but he has not scored a goal. In the World Cup, he also took 25 direct free kicks, scoring a goal against Spain in the 2018 group stage. In qualifying and friendlies, CR7 scored 10 free kick goals.
This parameter is surprising, since he was once considered a “free throw expert”, at least in the first 10 years of his career, with his “knuckleball” technique. During his national championship career, he scored 37 goals on 532 free throws, an average of 14 shots per goal. However, in the World Cup and the European Championship his performance is currently 54 shots per goal.
A knee injury in 2014 is considered the cause of Ronaldo’s ability to take free kicks. Before that injury, he scored 23 goals on 296 free throws in the national championships, an efficiency of 13 shots per goal. After the injury, this parameter was reduced to 17 shots per goal. However, this efficiency is still lower than that of contemporary free kick expert Lionel Messi, with 41 goals in 456 shots in the national championships, an efficiency of 11 shots per goal.
Ronaldo’s performance against the Czechs was not that bad, even though he had the most shots in the game (5 times) without scoring. According to the British newspaper Independent , the 39-year-old superstar scored 6 points, only less than Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva (both with 7 points), among Portugal’s top players.
Ronaldo still needs to find a goal to increase his scoring record in the European Championship to 6 periods. In the next match, Portugal will face Turkey at the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund on June 22. Both teams won their first match, so a draw can also help them have a high chance of moving forward.
