World Cup 2018: Argentina vs Iceland, 5 Talking Points

#1 Ronaldo 3-0 Messi

Lionel Messi misses from the spot.

How much ever we try to move away from the Messi vs Ronaldo debate, the sheer talent that the two men possess means that football can never ignore two of the greatest specimens to have graced the sport.

After Cristiano Ronaldo's heroics against the mighty Spain, the world's attention turned to the little magician to see what he could conjure up, to further add fuel to the raging debate.

The way he started the game, with real purpose, got everyone thinking that the Messi show was imminent. He went all-out to try and get the opener and clearly wanted to force the issue on his own. After Iceland survived a number of early scares, Messi was further shackled down by the men in white; three men surrounded him every time he got on the ball.

Then came the decision to award Argentina a penalty in the 64th minute, as Messi has hacked to the ground by Magnusson. Up stepped the most prolific goal-scorer in the Argentinian lineup, and the parallels started writing themselves up. A hat-trick for Messi after the hat-trick from Ronaldo? Will Messi see Ronaldo's goals and raise him a couple more?

4 - Lionel Messi has missed four of the last seven penalties that he has taken for Barcelona & Argentina combined (57%). Woe.#ARGISL #ARG #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/O0K8SlhMvw

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 16, 2018

What followed has happened only twice before, with him in an Argentina shirt, in a major international competition. Messi decided to go to the keeper's right and the keeper, too, went the right way. Messi's shot not only lacked the precision to find the left-bottom corner, but it was also at the perfect height for the keeper to make, what was in all honesty, a routine save.

The script was thrown out of the window. Lionel Messi had missed a penalty. And to be honest, never got his mind off that incident. Did the pressure get to even Lionel Messi?

Without a doubt, he's going to make us all pay for our words in this very competition, but for the moment, in the 2018 World Cup, it's Cristiano Ronaldo 3, Lionel Messi 0.