5 reasons why Cristiano Ronaldo, not Lionel Messi, is the Mr. Champions League

#3 Better big game player

Real Madrid v Juventus - UEFA Champions League Quarter Final Second Leg

The slide before this basically works as a testament to this one. Ronaldo has more goals in the knock-out stages overall, more goals in the quarters, semis and the finals.

In fact, his performances in the top games is what allowed Real Madrid to win three Champions League titles in a row. He scored a brace against Juventus in the final of 2017 Champions League and then another double against the same team in the first-leg of the quarter final of last season’s Champions League in Turin – a performance for which he got a standing ovation from Juventus fans.

In the return leg, he scored a 97th minute goal to stop Juventus from overturning the tie and taking Madrid to the semis in the process.

Even this season, which was a disappointment for Juve in Europe, he scored all of the Old Lady’s knock-out goals with none of his team-mates sharing the burden (one of which includes a hattrick against Atletico Madrid to overturn a 2-0 deficit).

While Messi, too, has put out great performances in big games in the past, in the last two seasons, he hasn’t been able to do it when it really mattered (Messi could have buried the game when he was clean through on goal and all he needed to do was shoot with his right foot but he opted to take it on his left, giving Virgil the time to dispossess him).