Real Madrid return to the scene of their last freekick goal

Real Madrid will visit the scene of their last freekick goal in a competitive match when they take on Real Betis at the Estadio Benito Villamarin on Sunday.

Dani Ceballos was the last Real Madrid player to find the net directly from a freekick with his winner at his former club on January 13 2019.

Rodrygo Goes did score from a freekick against Bayern Munich in Houston in July 2019, but that was only a friendly.

Since Ceballos' goal, Los Blancos have had 27 shots from freekicks and scored none.

In LaLiga Santander, Osasuna (22 shots) and Real Mallorca (12) have also failed to score a freekick since January 13 2019.

Barcelona are the most prolific from dead balls, scoring eight goals since, all of them from Lionel Messi's left foot, in 68 shots.

Of Real Madrid's unsuccessful takers, Gareth Bale has had the most attempts with nine. He almost put an end to the club's freekick draught against Paris Saint-Germain in November but hit the post with a late effort.

Casemiro and Isco are the next two most frequent takers, having failed to score with their four attempts each.

During his time at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Cristiano Ronaldo scored 33 times from 444 freekick attempts.

Real Madrid have been able to replace his penalty taking exploits with Sergio Ramos, but there has been no able substitute to take over from his freekicks.

Since Ronaldo left for Juventus, only Ceballos and Isco - against Roma in September 2018 - have scored from freekicks, with the team having 43 attempts in total.

Messi has taken more than double Real Madrid's number of freekicks in that time (89) and scored 12.

There are only six players in Zinedine Zidane's current squad that have scored a freekick before - Bale (three times - the last being in 2015), James Rodriguez (three), and Isco, Marcos Asensio, Ramos and Nacho (all on one).