Another Messi masterclass earns Barcelona 3 more points

Yesterday, Barcelona beat Valencia 3-2 with yet another great performance from Messi. Gabriel Paulista gave Valencia the lead 50 minutes in, but Messi, after missing a penalty, managed to score the equalizer. Griezmann then gave Barcelona the lead 2-1, and Messi consolidated it with a great free-kick goal. Soler's late goal didn't serve for much as Barcelona won 3-2 anyways. Messi's stats were: 2 goals, 1 big chance created, 3 SoT (5 in total), 1.84 xG, 7 dribbles, 1 key pass, 1 GCA, 6 SCA, 0.45 xA, 10 duels won out of 14, 3 fouls won, 1 tackle, 5 pressures (1 successful), 2 passes blocked, 4 ball recoveries, 2 long balls, 67 passes out of 86, and 108 touches. A great performance that earned a 10/10 according to Infogol. This was his performance on video:

Here are some fun facts after the game:

• Messi scored his 50th free-kick for Barcelona.
• Messi scored his 130th outside-the-box goal (free-kicks and open play).
• Messi has equaled Ronaldo's free-kick goal amount (56).
• Mestalla became the 6th stadium Mesi has scored 10+ goals in.
• Messi played his 20th game at Mestalla.
• Messi became the only player to score 10+ La Liga goals in 5 different away stadiums.
• Messi surpassed Carmelo Cedrún and is now tied in 18th place with Molina for the most games completed in La Liga (408).
• Messi is now tied with Raúl García in 7th place for the most games played in La Liga (517).
• Valencia became the 3rd side he has scored 30+ goals against.

This was an important game to win, as were the games before and as are the following games in the race for the La Liga title. Messi still leads in the Pichichi race by a good margin, so his Ballon d'Or campaign is looking good so far. The next game will be crucial, as Barça will be facing Atlético Madrid at home, which will probably settle who stands in the title race if it doesn't end in a draw. But until then, I'll see you in the next blog.

Who has Messi voted for in the Ballon d'Or and The Best?

Since September 2011, Messi has worn Argentina's captain armband consistently and therefore has voted for his top 3 best players of the year since then both in the Ballon d'Or and The Best. Who has he voted for in the past years? That will be the topic of today's entry.

In 2011, the first time he made a vote in the Ballon d'Or, he voted Xavi 1st, Iniesta 2nd, and Agüero 3rd. In 2012, the same 3 people appeared, but it was now Iniesta 1st, Xavi 2nd, and Agüero 3rd. The following year, 2013, he voted for Iniesta and Xavi once again, 1st and 2nd place respectively, but he put his new team-mate Neymar in 3rd place. In 2014, he put Di María 1st, Iniesta 2nd, and Mascherano 3rd, showing he appreciated his team-mates' efforts in the 2014 World Cup. The last year he voted on the Ballon d'Or was in 2015, voting for Suárez 1st, Neymar 2nd, and Iniesta 3rd. The pattern seen here is that he always voted for his team-mates, showing his appreciation for their efforts.

Going now to The Best, in the 2016 edition he voted Suárez 1st, Neymar 2nd, and Iniesta 3rd, following his trend from previous years to vote his team-mates. In 2017, he voted Suárez 1st, Iniesta 2nd, and Neymar 3rd, and in 2018 he changed things up and voted Modric 1st, Mbappé 2nd, and Ronaldo 3rd, neither of them being a team-mate of Messi, although realistically there was no team-mate of his that made a top-3 performance. In 2019, he voted Mané 1st, Ronaldo 2nd, and De Jong 3rd, once again voting for his bitter rival. Finally, in 2020, he voted Neymar 1st, Mbappé 2nd, and Lewandowski 3rd.

From this, we can take that he tends to vote for his team-mates, maybe as a sign of gratitude to their work (he is humble after all). To end the entry, here is a picture that shows who Messi has voted for in the last years (including Ronaldo as well).

Messi vs Ronaldo: A goalscoring comparison

Many people have compared Messi and Ronaldo on a goalscoring basis, and some even just restrict the debate to that section, which is a massive injustice to Messi. Ronaldo's position has been more of a fox-in-the-box position since he joined Real Madrid, while Messi has consistently been a winger/attacking midfielder. But even then, I will show proof in this entry that Messi is the better goalscorer than Ronaldo. So without further ado, let's look at the numbers.

Messi has scored 729 goals, while Ronaldo has scored 767. But this is misleading since Ronaldo has played 145 more games, or 11522 minutes specifically. Their goal ratios per game are 0.806 to 0.73, or 0.888 to 0.81 when taking their per 90 ratios. And without penalties, the total goal tally is 633 to 631 for Ronaldo, or a 0.697 to 0.6 ratio per game. Quite a difference between the two. In the league, Ronaldo wins 470 to 463 goals, but the ratio is 0.91 to 0.78 in favor of Messi. And in the Champions League, although Ronaldo wins 135 to 119, Messi wins ratio-wise with a 0.8 to 0.75 per game.

Another important thing to note is Golden Boots since Messi wins 6 to Ronaldo's 4 and Ronaldo hasn't won the award since the 2014/15 season. And although Ronaldo beats Messi in UCL top-scorer awards, his 2 offside goals in the 2016/17 season won him the award ahead of Messi (12 to 11). If it wasn't for those goals, Messi would have won it and it would be 7-6 for Messi overall.

Then there's other records/milesones like Messi having the record for most goals in a calendar year (91 to 69), most goals in a season (73 to 61), 3 seasons reaching 50+ non-penalty goals (Ronaldo has never achieved that), Messi being the youngest of the two to reach 100 goals all the way to 700, etc.

Against top sides, Messi has more goals against the top 3, top 4, top 5 and top 6 despite playing less games against all of those top sides. And against England's top 6, Messi has 2 fewer goals with 47 fewer games. And in finals, Messi has a ratio of 0.69 goals per final, while Ronaldo has a ratio of 0.59. And in head-to-head games, he has 22 goals to Ronaldo's 21.

And finally, when looking at their shooting % Messi wins overall 18.9% to 15.3%, or 5.28 to 6.54 shots taken per goal. Outside the box, the % is 8.79% to 4.63% (11.38 to 21.58 SPG), a massive difference, and inside the box it's to 27.14% 23.36% (3.68 to 4.28 SPG), again, quite a difference.

Overall, it can be seen that it's in fact Messi who is the better goalscorer of the two. I hoped you liked this entry and I'll see you in the next blog.

Too high standards

The "The Best" award was awarded yesterday, and Messi finished third despite clearly being better than his opponent Ronaldo in the 2019/20 season. This just goes to show how high the standards are for Messi, and I'll show it below.

As it can be seen here, comparing them in their respective leagues and in reference to the other players in the other 4 top leagues, Messi clearly surpasses CR7 in everything except goals (and even then he beats him non-penalty wise), which leaves us with doubts as to how he got ahead in the award.

Let's not forget that Messi is doing it in a considerably more defensively intense league as well, according to the UtdArena's metric, in addition to data not posted such as passes to the last third of the pitch, passes to the penalty area, progressive passes, touches, nutmegs, progressive carrying distance, fouls received, among many others, and Messi wins in all of those categories of course.

There's also the Champions League, where Messi was easily clear of Ronaldo, with one less goal but with more assists, goals generated, key passes, throughballs, dribbles, MoTM per game and an average rating of 8.37 to 7.26, having played against considerably harder opponents in the tournament as well.

Despite all this, despite being clearly better, Ronaldo came out second instead of Messi, which is a disgrace, but it only shows the greatness of Messi, who despite having everything going for him, he was defeated because Ronaldo scored more goals and won more trophies, a shame, but that's what happens when you're so good that the standards for you are unreasonably high.

UEFA Messi League

The phrase "UEFA Cristiano League" has been heard because of Ronaldo's apparent superiority in the competition, but in this post, I will show you how that is not the case, and it is indeed Messi who is superior.

First of all, Messi has a higher average of goals, assists, and goals generated per X minutes than Ronaldo. That already tells us a lot, in addition to the fact that Messi is the player with the fewest matches needed to reach 100 goals.

Since the 2009/10 season, Messi has more than double the dribbles completed, more key passes, more filtered passes, and more big chances created (since the 2015/16 season). As you can see, Messi has clear superiority.

Now we will take the average ratings from WhoScored. Since the 2009/10 season, Messi has been superior in the group stage, a round of 16, semi-finals, and finals. The total is a resounding 8.49 to 8.03, in addition to having 62 MoTM in 113 games against 38 in 122, a much higher average of MoTM. Also worthy to note that Messi beat Ronaldo in 7/11 Champions League seasons (8/12 counting the current one), which is quite a difference. It's fine to count from there considering that Ronaldo didn't pass the Round of 16 three times before that season and have an inferior performance than Messi in 2008/09.

In conclusion, as you can see, Messi is far superior to "Mr. Champions League", so if the competition were renamed to its most dominant player, it would be the UEFA Messi League.

No help...

Yesterday, on what may have been Messi's and Ronaldo's last game against each other, Barcelona lost 3-0 against Juventus, a heavy defeat that leaves them second in the group, a disgrace. Anyway, Messi made a good performance, with 7 shots on goal (11 in total), 4 dribbles, 7 duels on the ground won, 1 interception, 2 tackles, 3 key passes, 77 successful passes and 125 touches, being considered by some as the best player on the match despite the result.

Credit: BeSoccer

Another disaster of the team, which despite having one shot at the post from Griezmann, did not convert it, and was too dependent on Messi (all his shots on goal came from him). Without help for Leo from the other 10 players, he can't win games alone, even though he's done pretty much that for the past few years.

Anyway, Messi is still one of, if not the best player in the Champions League for some, which is phenomenal. We will see which team Barcelona will play in the Round of 16, but it seems that it will probably not be an easy one.

Messi vs Ronaldo: Head to head

Since the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League semi-finals, Messi and Ronaldo have faced each other 35 times, making it the most popular rivalry by far in this century. In this entry, I'll show statistics of both players to see how they compare.

Results

Messi has won 16 out of 35 head to head games, tying 9 and losing 10, which means that Messi has been more effective in this type of game than Ronaldo has. The same can be seen in La Liga (10 4 4) and the Champions League (2-2-1). There's later a draw in the Supercopa de España (2-1-2) and in international friendlies (1-0-1). Finally, Ronaldo wins in Copa del Rey matchups (2-1-1).

Goals

In total, Messi has scored 22 goals, while Ronaldo has scored 19. Messi also has the advantage in finals (7 to 5), La Liga (12 to 9), Champions League (3 to 0), and the Supercopa de España (6 to 4). They're tied 1 to 1 in international friendlies. On the other hand, Ronaldo shows a clear superiority in the Copa del Rey, with 5 goals to 0. A thing to note is that Messi has scored a hat-trick against Ronaldo, while Ronaldo himself hasn't.

Assists

No comparison in this category. Messi has given 12 assists, while Ronaldo has only given 1. Messi wins in every single tournament + International friendlies assists-wise so there's no need to talk about them.

Goals generated

Once again, Messi is clear in this category, with 34 goals generated to 20 from Ronaldo. Messi wins in every single tournament + International friendlies except the Copa del Rey, where Ronaldo still keeps more G+A, with 5 to 3.

Big chances created

Since the 2015/16 season, with SofaScore stats, Messi has created 6 big chances (5 in one single game), while Ronaldo has created none. Though honestly, the sample size here is small.

WhoScored average ratings

With WhoScored stats, since the 2009/10 season (except the first two Supercopa de España, the first two Copa del Rey ties, and the first leg of the 2012/13 Copa del Rey), Messi has had an average rating of 8.25, while Ronaldo has had an average of 7.2... nothing else to say, just a clear difference between the two.

WhoScored MoTM

With the aforementioned things said about WhoScored, Messi has had 11 MoTM performances (4 of them 10/10) in 22 games, while Ronaldo has only had 1 MoTM. Once again, a clear difference between both players.

Dribbles

With the same source, Messi has completed 99 dribbles, while Ronaldo has only completed 45, less than half of Messi's. Yet again, no comparison.

Throughballs

History repeats itself here, as Messi has 12 throughballs compared to Ronaldo's single 1.

Aerial duels

Finally, we reach a category where Ronaldo is clear since he's won 42 aerial duels compared to Messi's 4, though the height difference plays a major role of course. But even then, in 2011, Messi managed to win an aerial duel against Ronaldo, as it can be seen here:

Let's see what the result is today between Barça and Juve, but regardless, Messi will always be clear when it comes to head-to-head matches. Not disrespecting Cristiano here, just stating the facts.