Who is better, Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi? The two greatest living soccer players not only compete in the same league but for rival squads.
As Latinos Post compares both players, let us look at what the two superstars accomplished during the 14th week of La Liga and attempt to determine who had the better performance.
Messi: Argentina's favored son continued his hot streak with another two goals on Saturday against Athletic Bilbao. Messi now has 84 goals this year and has 21 goals in 14 games in the 2012-13 season. Most impressive of all is the fact that he has scored braces in each of his last five games for Barca, including four La liga matches. He scored one of his Saturday tallies off a deflection, but his second goal was a trademark blast into the right corner. He gets another chance Tuesday to tie Gerd Muller's record and even surpass it if he can add another brace.
Ronaldo: Poor Cristiano. His recent struggles have been exacerbated by Messi's recent streak. Fortunately he finally scored a goal (a game winner no less) for Real Madrid and he did it in a huge match for the squad as they defeated Atletico Madrid 2-0 and brought themselves within five points of second place rather than extending the gap to 11 or more. More importantly, Ronaldo's 13th goal of the season came off a free kick, his first such goal this season. He also added a brilliant assist on Mesut Ozil's goal to make it 2-0 and had a few prime chances.
Most recent 2012-13 Season Stats
Messi: 21 goals, 5 assists (5 goals, 2 assists in UCL, 2 goals in Spanish Super Cup)
Ronaldo: 13 goals, 2 assist (5 goals in UCL, 2 goals in Spanish Super Cup)
Edge: While Messi had more goals this week and continues his dominating hot streak, it is hard to dismiss Ronaldo's effort and the importance of his goal and assist. Messi's first goal proved to be the game winner, but his second goal was scored late in the match when the score was already in favor of Barcelona, 4-1. Meanwhile, Ronaldo scored his goal early in the contest to help his team ease into the match and assisted on the second goal in the second half to give his team some breathing room. Messi on the other hand had a strong performance against the 15th placed team in a match that was defined not so much by his effort but by his team's fantastic run. Ronaldo was the clear cut catalyst for Real Madrid. Ronaldo picks up a point in this one.
Messi 8-6.
During week 5, both players earned a point for equally strong weeks. During week 10, neither earned a point for forgettable weeks.
Read about past Weeks
Week 1, 2, 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13