BARCELONA: Cristiano Ronaldo has made his claim. Now he has to live up to it.
Ronaldo will face Lionel Messi tomorrow for the first time since the Portugal forward declared himself “the best player in the history” of football after equaling the Argentine’s five Ballon d’Or awards this month.
Basking in the spotlight of a glitzy ceremony under the Eiffel Tower, Ronaldo felt confident enough to put himself at the pinnacle of the sport, ahead of Messi and other greats like Pele and Diego Maradona.
“You will go and say that I have a big head, but when you’re at the top, it’s normal that you’re criticized,” he told France Football. “I am the best player in history, in both good and bad times.”
Personalities aside, Ronaldo has a tough case to make.
He and Messi both have four Champions League titles, but Messi’s eight Spanish league titles double Ronaldo’s tally for Madrid and Manchester United.
Messi also has the edge in their head-to-head duels. Messi has outscored Ronaldo 19-17 since Ronaldo joined Madrid in 2009. Before that, Messi scored in a 2-0 win over Ronaldo’s Manchester United in the 2009 Champions League final.
The Barcelona-led Messi have also had a clear advantage over Ronaldo’s Madrid. Messi has helped Barcelona beat Ronaldo’s side 13 times, to eight wins for Madrid and seven draws.
Overall, Messi holds the “clasico” record with 24 goals in 36 matches. Ronaldo is one goal shy of matching Madrid great Alfredo Di Stefano’s 18 goals against Barcelona.
The camera-shy Messi insisted again this Monday when he was recognized for leading the Spanish league in goals last campaign that he put more value on team titles than individual honors.
“Titles are our goal,” Messi said. “If individual statistics are there also, that’s even better, but they are not the objective.”
Ronaldo has no doubt closed the gap with Messi after he led Madrid to back-to-back Champions League titles in the past two seasons. But for Atletico Madrid striker Fernando Torres, this past decade is still set to bear Messi’s mark.
“If it wasn’t for (Ronaldo), Messi would have won twice as much,” Torres said on Wednesday. “What Ronaldo has done in the age of Messi says a lot about him.”
Ronaldo will need to be at his best tomorrow because anything other than a victory will deal a huge blow to Madrid’s title defense before the season even reaches its midway point.
Real enter the match in fourth place and trailing Barcelona by a mammoth 11 with a match in hand. Atletico Madrid and Valencia are in second and third.
“Given the situation we are in we are obligated to win,” Madrid defender Sergio Ramos said.
Messi had one of his most memorable performances at Madrid last season when he scored his second of two brilliant goals in stoppage time to silence the Santiago Bernabeu.
Madrid got revenge with wins of 3-1 and 2-0 in the Spanish Super Cup in August, when Barcelona were reeling from the departure of Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain.
Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde, however, quickly rallied his team and the Catalan club have not lost since, a run of 24 matches. With Neymar gone, Valverde has succeeded in tightening up Barcelona’s defense.
“It would be important to win for everything that would represent, since the match is so special, and we are playing at their ground,” Messi said. “There would still be a long way to go for the league title, but a victory would be a nice before the Christmas break.”
Time for Cristiano Ronaldo to back up ‘greatest’ talk against Lionel Messi in ‘El Clasico’
Time for Cristiano Ronaldo to back up ‘greatest’ talk against Lionel Messi in ‘El Clasico’
Archer dismisses Australian tailenders for a 5-wicket haul to keep England in the Ashes contest
ADELAIDE, Australia: Jofra Archer dismissed Mitchell Starc for a well-made 54 and No. 11 Nathan Lyon to restrict Australia to 371 on Thursday and complete a five-wicket haul to keep England in the Ashes contest.
Archer picked up the first wicket of the third test, two more in the first over after lunch later Wednesday and the last two on Day 2 after Australia resumed at 322 for eight.
Starc made it back-to-back half centuries to continue his run of form that has earned him player-of-the-match honors in Australia’s opening eight-wicket wins in Perth and Brisbane.
He was unbeaten on 33 overnight and quickly raced to his half-century, plundering four boundaries in the first 10 deliveries of the morning: two slashing cuts in the first over from Archer and two more to wayward deliveries from Brydon Carse.
Starc reached 50 with a single, hit the first ball of Archer’s next over to the boundary but then the England paceman bowled him with a delivery that angled in from around the stumps.
The last-wicket pair added 23 runs before Archer trapped Lyon lbw, leaving Scott Boland unbeaten on 14 from 21 deliveries.
Archer returned 5-53 from 20.2 overs for his fourth five-wicket haul in test cricket, and third in the Ashes.
Victory a must by England
England needs a victory in Adelaide to have any chance of reclaiming the Ashes in this five-test series. A good batting performance in hot conditions on Thursday will help the cause, particularly with the Australians in the field and the temperature forecast to get close to 40C on Day 2.
On Wednesday, Alex Carey posted a hometown hundred and Usman Khawaja scored 82 after he was recalled at the last minute to replace Steve Smith on the eve of his 39th birthday.
Carey’s 106 was slightly contentious after he survived a review for caught behind when he was on 72. England reviewed the initial not out decision but Carey survived as decision review technology showed a noise spike before the ball had reached his bat.
The technology’s operators, BBG, later conceded after play ended that an operator error was most likely.
“Given that Alex Carey admitted he had hit the ball in question, the only conclusion that can be drawn from this, is that the Snicko operator at the time must have selected the incorrect stump mic for audio processing,” BBG founder Warren Brennan said in a statement.
Before play on Day 2, the ICC match referee restored one review to England because of the error.
