Messi vs Ronaldo: The Race to 100 Champions League Goals

Ronaldo is just five shy of becoming the tournament’s first centurion but Messi has stormed back into contention by netting nine times in just four games

When the season began, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Cristiano Ronaldo would become the first player to rack up 100 Champions League goals.

Although it was Lionel Messi who had broken Raul’s record of 71 strikes in Europe’s premier cup competition in 2014, Ronaldo had stormed past his great rival by netting 16 times during Real Madrid’s triumph last season.

That had taken the Portugal superstar to 93 goals in the Champions League proper, 10 ahead of Messi. However, while Ronaldo has had a relatively quiet to start to Madrid’s bid for a 12th European Cup triumph, netting just twice, Messi has caught fire again.

The Argentine kicked off his campaign with three of Barcelona’s seven goals in their demolition of Celtic at Camp Nou to take outright possession of the Champions League hat-tricks record that he had shared with Ronaldo.

Messi bagged another treble in his next outing, against Manchester City, before scoring again in the return leg at the Etihad.

Now, after a double at Celtic Park on matchday five, the 29-year-old attacker sits on 91 goals, just four behind Ronaldo in the race to become the first Champions League centurion.

Barca conclude their group stage campaign at home to Borussia Monchengladbach on December 6, when Messi will know that another hat-trick would see him break Ronaldo’s group-stage record of 11 goals, which he set last season.

That would be particularly impressive, given Messi has featured only four times this season, having missed Barca’s trip to Monchengladbach on matchday two through injury.

Ronaldo, of course, has no control over that but, with a three-goal lead in hand, he will be in a position to move closer to that mythical figure of 100 when Madrid host Borussia Dortmund at the Santiago Bernabeu on December 7.

Of course, the 31-year-old’s primary objective will be on helping his side pip BVB to top spot in Group F but, Ronaldo being Ronaldo, there is no doubt that he will also desperate to win another battle in arguably the greatest goalscoring war the game has ever seen.