CRISTIANO RONALDO is in danger of equalling his record for most games without a goal.
The Manchester United star, 37, has not scored in his last six games having last found the net against Burnley at the end of December.
CR7 has only once gone seven consecutive matches without scoring – in his previous spell at United between December 2008 and January 2009.
Ronaldo must score against Brighton to avoid that feat but he will need to find his shooting boots quickly after missing an open goal against Southampton.
Worse still, Ronaldo is at risk of jumping above his rivals in terms of worse goalscoring droughts.
Lionel Messi already ranks better with his longest run without a goal at five games – but Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland share Ronaldo’s record of seven.
Here is how Ronaldo compares to his biggest attacking rivals.
Messi has gone five games without a goal on five occasions during his career.
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It happened three times during his Nou Camp stay in 2009-10 and twice in 2017-18. He has also twice gone five goals without a game for Argentina – once at the 2010 World Cup.
Salah joined Roma on loan in 2015-16 and endured a 10-game run without a goal between November and December.
He has been much more prolific at Liverpool but did go eight games without a goal in the early part of 2019.
Haaland went seven games without a goal for club and country in 2020-21, which did include a match against Manchester City.
He followed that run up with eight goals in seven games for Borussia Dortmund – proving it was a rare slip-up.
The Frenchman endured the worst drought of his career when he first joined Paris Saint-Germain.
Those seven games without a goal equalled the record he set while at Monaco in 2016-17.
Lewandowski has been one of the most productive strikers in front of goal in recent years so it is little surprise his biggest drought came in 2010-11.
But the Poland international started every one of those eight games on the bench – other than that his longest goal droughts have come in Polish colours, rather than Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund.
Barcelona once boasted a front three of Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar but the latter still managed 12 consecutive games without a goal in this period.
He did contribute 22 goals in 2016-17 however, and made the mega-money move to PSG the following summer.
Like Ronaldo, the veteran striker also hit a period where he struggled in front of goal this season, going 10 games for Atletico Madrid and Uruguay without a strike.
Benzema is enjoying the most prolific spell of his career but on four occasions he has gone eight games without a goal.
The most recent eight-game goalless run came in 2018-19 – a season in which he still managed to score 30 times.
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