FIFA 2018: These stats show how badly Cristiano Ronaldo has upstaged Lionel Messi in Russia – Football has been defined by the greatness of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for over a decade now.
There have been several instances when either of them has dominated, there are statistics of their respective style of game but the end result is yet to be declared – who is the best footballer in the world?
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In 2016, by winning the Euro for Portugal, Ronaldo took a huge leap in the battle but then, Messi’s achievements for his club FC Barcelona are way too many to be ignored.
The Argentine star has record-tying five Ballon d’Or awards, four of which he won consecutively, and a record five European Golden Shoes. He has spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he has won 32 trophies, including nine La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles, and six Copas del Rey titles.
If we go by his club record, Messi certainly is one of the greatest footballers to have graced the sport but until he wins a major trophy with his country, his greatness will always fall short in comparison to Ronaldo and countryman Diego Maradona, who led Argentina to their only title so far in 1986.
Even though it is silly to compare Messi and Ronaldo – two absolutely different footballers doing the same job – making football proud to have them – the comparison eventually takes place.
After Ronaldo scored Portugal’s all four goals in two games, the pressure on Messi had got doubled to match his arch-rival’s standards in the ongoing tournament.
Let’s go through Messi and Ronaldo’s numbers so far in FIFA World Cup 2018:
– Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo
Matches 2 2
Matches won 0 1
Goals scored 0 4
Total shots 12 10
Shots on target 3 4
Defending his player, Argentine coach, Jorge Sampaoli, made a superb point about the two after Argentina’s heavy loss to Croatia on Friday and one cannot deny his point.
“I think Cristiano is a great player – you can look at all he has achieved as a player with his club and his country. Right now we shouldn’t compare these two players. I think because of the reality of the Argentinian squad, it clouds Leo’s brilliance.
Leo is limited because the team doesn’t gel ideally with him as it should. As coaches, we need to realise these things and try to deal with them and I’m the one that needs to accept it,” he added.
He is right because Argentina’s game has been heavily dependent on Messi. If you remove the 30-year-old, the team is left with a hopeless defense, who have been failing to work in sync with their attacking players.
