Cristiano Ronaldo has far superior Champions League knockout record to Lionel Messi

 Mark Brus for Metro.co.ukTuesday 13 Jun 2017 10:03 am

Who do you think is the best? (Pictures: Getty)

 The Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi debate is likely to go on and on for long after they’ve both retired, but some interesting Champions League stats suggest we may finally have an answer.

While many feel Messi has a slight edge over Ronaldo in the debate at the moment, the Real Madrid star’s incredible 2016/17 may have elevated his status slightly among the remaining doubters.
The Portugal forward started last summer by helping his national team to a surprise victory in Euro 2016, landing him the international honour that had long eluded him and that continues to elude Messi.

Cristiano Ronaldo has now scored four Champions League final goals (Picture: Getty)

 

 

Ronaldo ended the season in unstoppable form (Picture: Getty)

 As well as that, the 32-year-old had another prolific season to give Real Madrid a first title win for five years, though his finest form surely came as he almost single-handedly dragged the club to another Champions League win.
Ronaldo came to life in the latter stages of the competition, scoring hat-tricks in the quarter-final and semi-final wins over Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid before netting a superb brace in the 4-1 final triumph over Juventus.
His numbers this season have given him a big boost in terms of his overall Champions League knockout record, putting him some distance ahead of Messi in terms of impact at this stage of what is surely the most competitive level of world football.

Ronaldo has done it in the biggest games (Picture: AS)

 

The above graphic courtesy of Spanish publication AS shows that Ronaldo has 37 goals in 42 Champions League knockout matches, while Messi has just 16 in 34.

 

 And it seems the gap just gets wider the bigger the games get, with Ronaldo netting 13 semi-final goals to Messi’s four, and four goals in finals – twice as many as the Argentine forward.
This won’t settle the debate for everyone of course, but if scoring so consistently against the best teams in Europe in the most important games of most clubs’ seasons isn’t enough, then it remains to be seen what more the former Manchester United star can do to win people over.

 Between them, Real Madrid and Barcelona have won six of the last nine Champions League finals, but some occasional early exits by Barca have meant Messi has been unable to add to his record later in the competition.