Cristiano Ronaldo, Steve Smith and the best of the Dakar Rally: sports images of the week

We pick out the week's most spectacular images from the last seven days

Powered by automated translation

It might be a New Year, but it is the same old story for Cristiano Ronaldo.

The prolific Juventus striker was on target twice during his team's 4-1 thrashing of Udinese on Sunday, taking him clear at the top of Italy's goalscoring chart.

Four days later, Ronaldo and Juve were back in action and winning again, this time a 3-1 victory against table-topping AC Milan to end the Rossoneri's 27-game unbeaten run in Serie A.

Over in Spain, it was a similar tale for Ronaldo's old sparring partner Lionel Messi. The Argentine produced arguably he best performance of the season as he scored twice in Barca's 3-2 win at Athletic Bilbao.

We have picked out 25 stunning images from the last seven days in the photo gallery above. To move on to the next picture click on the arrows, or if using a mobile device, simply swipe.