Messi or Ronaldo? | The most personal rivalry in soccer history: How did they make each other better?

1 year ago
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As we all know, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are arguably the most successful athletes of our time. What is more interesting is their share of each other’s success…

The Qatar 2022 World Cup has been witnessing several firsts since its first day. One of them was the Argentina-Australia match played on November 3. Lionel Messi, who has been playing in World Cup tournaments since 2006, scored for the first time in a qualifying match.

Isn’t it interesting that Messi, arguably one of the best players in world football, has never scored a goal in a competition at this stage? Even more interesting is the fact that his biggest rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, has also never scored a qualifying goal.

But given the way their careers have progressed, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Ronaldo find the net in tonight’s game against Switzerland.

“What do you mean?” we can hear you ask. The thing is that whenever one of the duo makes a significant achievement, the other one is quick to follow suit. Ever since their rise to fame in the late 2000s, Messi and Ronaldo have been in a “I can do everything you do better” rivalry.

Let’s take a closer look at their nearly 20-year careers at the top level and compare and contrast how they have inspired each other to be “better”.

Messi or Ronaldo? | The most personal rivalry in soccer history: How did they make each other better? 1

2006: FIRST GOALS AT THE WORLD CUP

Argentina, in Group C of the 2006 tournament hosted by Germany, beat Ivory Coast 2-1 in the first match.

In the second match, Argentina faced Serbia and Montenegro. The 18-year-old Messi, who was playing for Barcelona at the time, scored his first goal in the World Cup in the match he started in the starting 11. The match ended with a 6-0 victory for Argentina.

One day later, in the Group D matches, Portugal took the field against Iran for the second match. In the match, which ended 2-0, 21-year-old Ronaldo scored one of Portugal’s goals. This was Ronaldo’s first goal in World Cups.

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2007-2009: SHORT PASSES WITH THE BALLON D’OR

Ronaldo, who brought the Premier League title to Manchester United with 31 goals in the 2007-2008 season, took his team to the top with 8 goals in the Champions League, and took Portugal to the quarterfinals of the 2008 European Championship with 4 goals in the national jersey, was awarded his first Ballon d’Or in December that year.

That season, Messi and Ronaldo faced each other on the pitch for the first time: Sir Alex Ferguson’s men eliminated Frank Rijkaard’s Barcelona 1-0 in the Champions League semi-finals.

At the time of the award ceremony, the first season of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona adventure (2008-2009) was halfway through. By the end of the season, Barcelona had lifted all three trophies. Messi had a hand in 57 goals, including assists.

The last of those goals came in the 70th minute of the Champions League final in Rome, when he found the net for Manchester United with Ronaldo in his shirt.

Six months after lifting the Champions League trophy, Messi overtook Ronaldo to win the Ballon d’Or. Messi would win the award 6 more times over the next 12 years.

2010: FLANNELS WORN AT THE WORLD CUP

At the 2006 World Cup, Argentina, who lost the quarterfinals to hosts Germany in a penalty shootout, played their first match against Nigeria in South Africa four years later. The Argentine national team was led by Diego Armando Maradona, who brought the championship in 1986 and the second place in 1990. The captain of the team was 22-year-old Messi. The match ended with a 1-0 victory for Argentina.

Ronaldo, who had transferred to Real Madrid for 80 million pounds exactly one year before that match and set a record that was hard to break, captained Portugal in a 0-0 draw against Ivory Coast three days after Messi.

Spain lifted the trophy and both countries were eliminated in the quarterfinals. However, over time, CR7 adapted to Spanish football and took his football to a whole new level in the 2010-2011 season.

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2010-2012: GOAL RECORDS BROKEN IN LA LIGA

Ronaldo scored a total of 53 goals in his matches for Real Madrid in the 2010-2011 season. 40 of these goals were scored in 34 matches played in La Liga. Thus, Ronaldo broke the record for the most goals scored in a season in the Spanish league (the previous record was set 60 years ago in the 1950-1951 season).

The following season Ronaldo outdid himself and extended his record of 40 goals to 46. But there was someone who did better than him: Messi, who scored 50 goals and provided 19 assists in the 2011-2012 season.

Not only that, the Argentine scored 14 goals in the Champions League, becoming the highest scoring foot in the history of the competition (including the old European Cup format) in a single season.

CONSECUTIVE ‘HAT-TRICKS’

Ronaldo, who had already won titles in the Premier League, La Liga and the Champions League, started the 2013-2014 season in top form. In the first group match of the Champions League, Real Madrid faced Galatasaray at Ali Sami Yen Stadium and Ronaldo scored a hat-trick. Ronaldo scored the last goal of the match, which ended 1-6, in the 90th minute, breaking through the defense and sending the ball into the far corner with his left foot.

It was interpreted as a strong sign that Ronaldo would win his first Champions League title at Real Madrid under Carlo Ancelotti.

A day later, Barcelona hosted Ajax at Camp Nou in their group match. And as you might have guessed, Messi scored a hat-trick of his own, showing that he will not be far behind Ronaldo. One of Messi’s three goals came from free kicks that would become legendary in time.

UNBELIEVABLE GOAL SCORING RECORDS CONTINUED

As the season progressed, Real Madrid was slowly approaching ‘La Decima’, the 10th European Cup title. The final was the Madrid derby.

Ronaldo scored in the last minute of extra time against Atletico Madrid to win 4-1 and take his personal Champions League record to 17, breaking Messi’s record of 16 goals set two seasons ago. In La Liga, Atletico Madrid won the title with 90 points, while Real Madrid and Barcelona remained on 87 points each.

This meant that a third team joined the El Clasico rivalry. So Barcelona and Real Madrid had to step up a gear. Both Messi and Ronaldo did their part in this regard, with the two players finding the net a total of 129 times in La Liga in the 2014-2015 season.

An important development took place in December. In Real Madrid’s game against Celta Vigo, the 29-year-old Ronaldo scored his 200th La Liga goal (and another hat-trick). The next day, Barcelona faced Espanyol in the Catalan derby. Not to be outdone by Ronaldo, 27-year-old Messi also scored a hat-trick in this match. What was even more interesting was that with these goals, Messi scored his ‘second dahlia’ in his 182nd game since Ronaldo’s transfer to Spain.

THIS IS HOW THE THOUSANDTH GOAL CAME

Ronaldo’s international successes were crowned when Portugal beat hosts France in the final of Euro 2016 to lift the trophy.

The tournament was played after a period of heated Ronaldo-Messi rivalry

In January, Messi scored the goal that brought the score from 1-0 to 1-1 in Barcelona’s 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid. Thus, for 24 hours, Ronaldo and Messi’s career goal tally reached 1,000. However, a day later, in Real Madrid’s 6-0 thrashing of Espanyol, Ronaldo scored 3 more goals, bringing the total to 1003.

On March 3, Messi scored another hat-trick in a 5-1 win over Rayo Vallecano as Barcelona cruised to their sixth La Liga title in eight years. It was Messi’s 7th hat-trick in 16 months in La Liga. Two days later, however, Ronaldo was back in the spotlight, scoring 4 goals in a 7-1 win over Celta Vigo.

That same year, Real Madrid, under Zinedine Zidane, won the first of three consecutive Champions League titles. Add to that Portugal’s Euro 2016 title and Ronaldo’s fourth Ballon d’Or was inevitable.

Meanwhile, Barcelona’s hard times were beginning. Champions League champions in 2014-2015, the Catalan team said goodbye in the quarter-finals (something that would become a painful habit in the years to come).

The rivalry continued in the 2016-2017 season. Messi started that year very well. In the first two group games against Celtic and Manchester City, Messi netted 3 times each, becoming the first player in Champions League history to score 7 hat-tricks. (Previously, Ronaldo and Messi shared the record of 5.)

In the same season, Ronaldo scored three goals in two consecutive Champions League matches. The first against Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals and the second against fellow countrymen Atletico in the first leg of the semifinals. Ronaldo has now equalled Messi’s Champions League record, set five months ago. (Both men now have 8 hat-tricks each).

A RACE FOR QUALITY AS WELL AS QUANTITY OF GOALS

For a long time, Messi seemed to score the most beautiful goals of the year. On March 4, 2018, for example, he sent a free kick into the Atletico Madrid goal that left goalkeeper Jan Oblak helpless, unable to catch the speed of the ball even though he dived for the right corner.

A month later, in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, Real Madrid took on Juventus. Ronaldo did what was expected of him; his goal was one of the best in the history of the competition.

TWILIGHT YEARS

Ronaldo played his best games in the Champions League during his 2018-2019 season at Juventus. Juventus lost 2-0 in their first leg against Atletico Madrid in the first round of 16. In the rematch in Turin, Ronaldo scored another hat-trick and took Juventus one step further.

In the same season, there were debates about whether Barcelona could also reach the quarterfinals. The day after the Juventus-Atletico Madrid match, Ernesto Valverde’s men took the field against Lyon. The first match had ended 0-0. It was Messi’s turn to have the last word. Barcelona finished the match with a score of 5-1 with the advantage of hosting the game. Messi scored 2 and assisted 2 of these 5 goals.

As Ronaldo and Messi move into their mid-30s, their days of breaking one record after another are slowly fading away.

In the first round of 16 of the Champions League in the 2019-2020 season, Juventus were eliminated by Lyon. Ronaldo did his best for his team in the second leg, scoring two goals, one from midfield.

The next day Messi scored one of his magical goals, leaving half of the Napoli defense helpless. He found the net from the bottom corner to lock the score at 3-1 and send his team to the quarterfinals.

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SCORING RACE CONTINUES

In September last year, Ronaldo became the top scorer of all time with 111 goals after finding the net twice in Portugal’s match against Ireland.

A week later, it was Messi’s turn. Scoring his 79th goal in the national shirt, the Argentine became the top scorer among South American international goal scorers.

Qatar 2022 will probably be Ronaldo’s and Messi’s last World Cup. If Ronaldo can score a goal against Switzerland tonight, the last corner will be turned in the rivalry between the two. Football fans who have witnessed every stage of this incredible rivalry in the last 15 years will experience a bitter taste between “How lucky we were” and “It was a bitter taste”.

compiled from his news article titled.: The Athletic’in “Ronaldo v Messi – the absurd timeline of how they have driven each other to break records” 

 

 

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