World Cup: Messi v Ronaldo
With the tournament in Russia fast-approaching, we take a look at Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's numbers in football's most prestigious competition. Who has the better numbers?
The two best players in the world have both participated in three World Cups, in fact, the three same World Cups: Germany 2006, South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014.
In Germany, Messi played three games (W2, D1) yet only scored one goal: against Serbia. Ronaldo, meanwhile, played six (W4, L2) but also only found the back of the net once: against Iran. However, in one of those appearances, against the Netherlands, the Portuguese forward was taken off after 34 minutes.
Moving on to South Africa, Messi failed to score in all five of his matches for Argentina, whereas Ronaldo managed one in his four games: against North Korea.
It would be the last World Cup, however, which would separate the two talismanic forwards. In Brazil, Messi came alive... bagging four goals - against Bosnia, Iran and Nigeria (2) - in seven appearances to propel Argentina to the final, which they lost 1-0 to Germany. It means that from 15 appearances, the Barcelona magician has scored five times at an average of a goal every 3 games.
For Ronaldo, he fell short in 2014. Going out in the group stages, the Real Madrid man made just three appearances, scoring once (against Ghana) to finish his World Cup record with three goals from 13 games, two less than Messi, and at an average of a goal every 4.33 games.
Who will come out on top in Russia though?