Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have been tremendous in the Spanish league for their respective clubs in 2013. However, many questioned whether the two superstars would be able to translate their success to their international teams in the World Cup qualifiers. While one superstar continued his torrid play for his country, the other continued to baffle with inconsistencies and a yellow card.
Ronaldo was once again inefficient for the Portuguese as the team drew 3-3 with Israel in a match they were expected to win. Ronaldo added an assist in the match, but now has just one goal in five World Cup qualifiers. To add insult to injury, he received a yellow card and will be forced to sit out of Portugal's match against Azerbaijan on Tuesday. "We can't make any more mistakes, lose any more points, the margin for error is zero. We have to play with ambition and win all our remaining games. This is what we will do. The Israel game didn't go as we wanted. We battled hard but for several reasons we didn't get the win," said Ronaldo.
Meanwhile his rival looked stellar in Argentina's 3-0 win over Venezuela. Messi set up Higuain for two goals before adding his own on a penalty shot.
"Higuain is a great player because he scores a lot of goals," Messi told the media after the match. "Every time we play our understanding together increases. Playing together is a great joy shared amongst the members of the Argentina squad. The most important thing is to win, no matter who makes the assists or gets the goals."
With the goal, Messi now has 32 tallies for Argentina, two short of the record set by Diego Maradona.
Back in the fall, Messi helped Argentina to two qualifying victories while Ronaldo was shutout in two straight; after Tuesday the same scenario could play out in the same manner.
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