Thursday 23 June 2016 10:50, UK
Cristiano Ronaldo has been criticised for his poor free-kick taking at Euro 2016 - but the Portugal captain actually has a better set-piece record in club football than Lionel Messi, Gareth Bale and Dimitri Payet.
Wales ace Bale has scored two free-kicks at the European Championship, while Lionel Messi became Argentina's top goalscorer with a superb free-kick against USA in the Copa America this week.
Payet, meanwhile, has shown his free-kick class for West Ham and France in recent months, scoring from dead-ball situations in consecutive internationals for his country in 2016.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo spent the group stages of Euro 2016 blasting the majority of his free-kick attempts high, wide or into the wall. He's now failed to score with a direct free-kick at a major tournament with his last 39 attempts.
However, WhoScored.com's analysis of the quartet's free-kick taking for their clubs - in their domestic league and Champions League since the start of the 2009/10 season - throws up some surprising results...
Cristiano Ronaldo - 12 scored from 141 attempts (8.5% conversion, 31.9% on target)
After Portugal's final Group F game against Hungary on Wednesday, Ronaldo has now gone 39 free-kicks for his country at World Cups and European Championships without scoring, with only nine having even hit the target.
His record at club level for Real Madrid is a little better - he has scored 12 out of 141 attempts in La Liga and the Champions League since 2009/10.
Despite rarely finding the net with his free-kicks, the 31-year-old actually boasts the best conversion rate of the four players featured here, with 8.5 per cent of his efforts going in.
Lionel Messi - 18 scored from 232 attempts (7.8% conversion, 32.3% on target)
Messi has scored more free-kicks than Ronaldo, Bale and Payet in domestic league and Champions League football over the past six seasons, netting 18 times. However, the Argentina ace has had considerably more attempts than the other trio of dead-ball specialists, with the 28-year-old in charge of most set-piece duties at the Nou Camp.
Messi has had 232 attempts from free-kicks since the start of the 2009/10 season, but has a conversion rate of 7.8 per cent.
Given the number of free-kicks he has taken, it is perhaps no surprise that Messi has a slightly lower conversion rate than Ronaldo, but he can at least boast marginally better accuracy than his La Liga counterpart.
Dimitri Payet - 4 scored from 63 attempts (6.3% conversion, 46% on target)
Payet has carried his excellent form during the 2015/16 season with West Ham into the European Championship finals, scoring twice in his country's opening two games, and defences will be wary of giving away free-kicks around their own penalty box.
The 29-year-old playmaker showed he is a real danger standing over a stationary ball for the Hammers last season, including a goal-of-the-season contender against Crystal Palace in the Premier League.
Indeed, having taken just 63 direct set-pieces in the past seven seasons in the competitions included here, Payet boasts a far better accuracy than Messi, Ronaldo and Bale.
Gareth Bale - 3 scored from 83 attempts (3.6% conversion, 26.5% on target)
The Welshman has shown his free-kick pedigree at Euro 2016 with two stunning strikes to open the scoring in his country's first two group games against Slovakia and England, but Bale is often overlooked from such range for Real, with Ronaldo usually taking charge of set-pieces.
The 26-year-old has developed a technique that is not too dissimilar from the Portuguese, with goalkeepers made to look bamboozled by the flight of the ball, but it has resulted in just three goals from 83 attempts - a conversion rate of just 3.6 per cent.
With the former Tottenham star registering a lower accuracy than his illustrious counterparts at club level, he will hope his deadly free-kicks for Wales have helped him stake a claim to usurp Ronaldo as Real's No 1 set-piece taker next season.
