‘Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi’ will go down as football’s eternally unanswerable question. The two legends have defined an era of the sport and are amongst the best players to step onto the field in history in their own right.
The Argentine has seemingly taken the edge over his Portuguese counterpart by winning the FIFA World Cup in Qatar last year. However, there is a strong case to argue that Ronaldo at Real Madrid was far more decisive in Europe than Messi ever was.
Bayern Munich eliminated Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe’s PSG from this season’s UEFA Champions League in the Round of 16 last night with a 3-0 win on aggregate.
Speaking to the media after the Bavarians’ big win, Bayern veteran Thomas Muller spoke about his success in getting the better of Messi time and time again and had special words for Real Madrid. As revealed by Georg Holzner, he said,
“When it comes to results, we always do well against Lionel Messi – at all levels. At the club level, it was always Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid who was a problem for us.”
There is a clear element of truth in Muller’s statements for Bayern Munich have recorded some of their most dominant wins in the UCL against Barcelona with Messi. The 8-2 triumph at Lisbon was the cherry on the cake.
Meanwhile, there is another angle to view Muller’s words. While Ronaldo’s influence on Real Madrid’s success was instrumental, the German’s choice of words is interesting. His emphasis that he only struggled against Ronaldo at the club level goes to speak volumes about how Real Madrid as a team have dominated the German champions time and time again.
Real Madrid and Bayern Munich could meet in the future rounds of the UCL this season, especially given that the Merengues’ qualification to the quarterfinal is all but guaranteed.
