Spanish press highlight Gareth Bale arrival for dip in Ronaldo’s free-kick success rate

Like any law of averages, surely the next free-kick goal is coming.

Cristiano Ronaldo is a man of many, many talents but rapping in spectacular free-kicks is not currently one of them. The Real Madrid star has almost gone a year without finding the net from the place ball. Spanish newspaper AS was so troubled by his wayward efforts that it dusted off its primary school abacus and went back over the World Player of the Year's last 38 games. Over the course of those matches, Ronaldo stepped up, planted his legs in that classic, wide stance, and puffed his chest out. However, none of his 51 efforts managed to ripple a net or beat a goalkeeper. The 30-year-old's last free-kick goal was this cheeky effort, against Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-final, on April 29, 2014. The newspaper points out that Ronaldo's scoring percentage has dropped since he divvied up set-pieces with Gareth Bale. The Portuguese is mostly thwacking his knuckle-balls from the left and left-footed Bale is pinging from the right. Bale's most recent goal from a free was against Espanyol in January: