Ancelotti: No competition between Ronaldo & Bale

The former Real Madrid coach says there are no arguments between the Spanish club’s two attacking stars over free-kick duties, with Ronaldo still taking most of their set-pieces

As a Goal columnist, Carlo Ancelotti will provide his expertise and insight on this season’s Champions League through an exclusive series of columns and videos.

When Rafael Benitez defended Cristiano Ronaldo’s free-kick record earlier this season, he inadvertently struck upon the crux of the problem.

“When we practice in training he hits them well and I am confident,” Benitez said. “He hits them quite well. I will tell them to make you a video.”

Few would argue that Ronaldo’s knuckleballs look good on film; there is no shortage of YouTube compilations of the best strikes of his 13-year career. The more pressing question is whether his swerving shots are consistently accurate enough to justify Ronaldo taking the lion’s share of Real Madrid’s free-kicks.

Benitez’s predecessor, Carlo Ancelotti, thinks so. “Firstly, taking a free-kick is not easy,” Ancelotti told Goal. “Then, not many goals are scored directly from frees. He strikes them well, trains a lot on this, but at the end of the day, I believe that the overriding fact is that it’s not easy to score from a free-kick. He’s certainly not got worse.



let assume that