Messi vs. Ronaldo: The Final World Cup Showdown
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are set to play their final World Cup in Qatar. Phil Neville wants to sign Messi for Inter Miami. Ronaldo is having a rocky time at Manchester United. They are the fourth and sixth different players to have played in five different World Cups.
Lionel Messi made his World Cup debut in the second group game of the 2006 World cup in Germany. Messi came on as a substitute and scored twice in a 6-0 victory. Cristiano Ronaldo was selected in PFA Premier League Team of Year after his 15 league goals and six assists in 2005-06. Ronaldo scored 11 goals for Portugal during the tournament. Wayne Rooney scored 25 goals in Premier league under 21s. Ronaldo's four shots without scoring were ineffective. England went on to lose 1-1 to France in semi-finals. The game that Ronaldo played in was the red card that led to Wayne's red.
Both Messi and Ronaldo won the Ballon d'Or in 2009. Messi won La Liga Pichichi Trophy with 34 goals in the 2009-10 season. He played every minute of Argentina's five games at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. His assist against Mexico in round of 16 was his only goal involvement across the entire tournament. Argentina lost to Germany in quarter-final stage. Ronaldo's only involvement came in 7-0 win against North Korea on MD2.
Ronaldo and Messi played in the 2014 World Cup. Ronaldo's Portugal lost to Germany in their opening match and then drew with the United States and beat Ghana. Messi's Argentina won all their group matches and reached the World cup final. He was awarded the Golden Ball for his performances. He also led the tournament in chances created, dribbles, carries and passes played into the penalty area. James Rodríguez and Thomas Müller were the only players to outscore Messi.
Messi and Ronaldo are going to play each other in the World Cup finals in 2018. Messi kicked off his 2018 World cup in Russia by missing a penalty and failing to register a shot on target in a 3-0 loss to Croatia. He scored the opener against Nigeria to secure a second-place finish in Group D and a round-of-16 clash with France. Ronaldo's tournament began in contrasting fashion, scoring a hat-trick in Portugal’s 3,3 draw with Spain and the only goal in their 1-1 win over Morocco.
Neither Messi nor Ronaldo have scored a goal in a World Cup knockout game since 2006. Miroslav Klose, Wesley Sneijder and Thomas Müller have netted in the World Cups knockout stages since then. Ronaldo's non-penalty xG of 1.92 is the worst among his generation. He could become the second oldest player in World cup history to score a knockout stage goal after Cameroon’s Roger Milla in 1990.
Messi and Ronaldo could meet in the World Cup final in Qatar. Messi is most likely to carry his team to the latter stages of the competition. Ronaldo has struggled for minutes in Premier League this season. He needs one goal to become the first player in World Cups history to score in five different tournaments. He is currently behind Pelé, Uwe Seeler and Miroslav Klose. Only Demarai Gray has a worse conversion rate than Ronaldo in English Premier Leagues. The latter is also less effective than him in non-penalty situations. His xG of 0.08 is his lowest on record in a league campaign.
