Cristiano Ronaldo's 10 best goals of the decade 

#4 vs. Atletico Madrid, April 2012

Ronaldo unleashed an unstoppable free kick past Atletico Madrid

Another Real Madrid game in 2011-12, another Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick. This time the treble came against Real’s neighbours Atletico Madrid, as Los Blancos went into the Estadio Vicente Calderon and came away with an impressive 1-4 victory. On this occasion, it was the Portuguese forward’s first goal that was the most outstanding one.

Coming into the match, Ronaldo had not scored from a free-kick in more than 40 attempts during the season, but all that was about to change on 25 minutes. Awarded the kick some 36 yards out, ‘CR7’ stood over the ball in his trademark pose before hitting it with his famed ‘knuckleball’ shot, sending a strangely hard, flat shot whizzing past the wall and into the net past a frozen Thibaut Courtois.

The curve that the Portuguese put on the ball made this a simply unstoppable shot, reminiscent of his great free kick for Manchester United against Portsmouth in 2008. The goal was his 39th of 2011-12 – and it came as no surprise to see him add his 40th and 41st later in the match.