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The Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi debate has been the hottest debate in football over the last decade. Cristiano Ronaldo moved to a different league, after joining Juventus at the start of the season and it was thought that he would find it difficult to replicate his past performances in a new league at this stage of his career. But yet again, he has proved all his doubters wrong.
Lionel Messi, on the other hand, has arguably been the best player across top 5 European leagues this season. The Argentine seems to have got better with age.
Though playing in different leagues, both Ronaldo and Messi have performed to the level they are expected to and it is not a surprise that the comparison between the two is still the hottest talking point in world football
Here is the statistical comparison between the two greats for the ongoing season so far:
1. Goals and assists
One would probably expect that the two players might be very close when it comes to goals and assists but that is not the case so far. Messi tops the podium quite easily when it comes to scoring goals and providing assists in the season so far.
Lionel Messi has 26 goals and 16 in 25 appearances for Barcelona in all competitions this season so far.
Cristiano Ronaldo has 17 goals and 7 assists in 28 appearances for Juventus in all competitions this season so far.
2. Passing
Apart from the excellent goal scoring and creative ability that Messi has, it won't be wrong to say that he is also the best passer in the game currently.
Messi is averaging 3.0 key passes per game as compared to Ronaldo who is averaging 1.5 key passes per game. Lionel Messi also thumps Ronaldo in the number of long balls (3.4) and through balls (1.1) per game. On an average, per game, Ronaldo only plays 0.9 long balls and 0.2 through balls.
Also see : Copa America Standings, Copa America Schedule.
3. Defensive
The only area where Ronaldo is ahead of Messi, in the season so far, is the defensive side of the game. Ronaldo has always been better than Messi in this aspect, mainly because of his built and work rate.
Ronaldo averages more blocks (0.1),clearances (0.9) and dribbled past (0.4) per game as compared to Messi. Surprisingly, Messi has more tackles (0.7) per game, than Ronaldo and has got less yellow and red cards as compared to Ronaldo.
So far in the 2018/19 season, it is fair to say that Messi has been a more complete and better player than Ronaldo in most of the departments, but with almost half the season left and Champions League's knock-out stages about to begin, one cannot deny that at the end of the season, these numbers will be very close than what they are now.
