Sunday, June 5, 2022, was a goal rush day for two of the greatest footballers on earth, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as they ended the day with a combined seven goals for their countries.
The rivalry between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo seems to be an endless one even though the two iconic players are currently in the twilight of their illustrious football careers. Currently, Ronaldo is the only individual that has scored 117 international goals in the history of football and Messi is actively contending for that spot.
Currently, Ronaldo’s arch-rival Messi has 86 international goals which means that the 37-year-old Portuguese football icon would use the last years in his football career to extend the record so that his 34-year-old rival from Argentina would not overtake him.
As if Lionel Messi knew what is at stake, the Paris Saint Germain forward hijacked the friendly game between Argentina and Estonia on Sunday to push himself higher on the all-time goalscorers’ chart.
During the friendly game which took place in Spain, Lionel Messi scored the opener in the 8th minute via a spot-kick. In the 45th minute, the seven times Ballon d’Or winner doubled Argentina’s lead.
Messi continued his solo performance in the game by scoring a hat-trick of goals in the second half to help Argentina defeat Estonia 5-0 to end their European tour in a grand style.
The five goals the former FC Barcelona star scored against Estonia took his total international goals tallies to 86 which means that Messi has now surpassed the 84 international goals Hungary legend Ferenc Puskas scored for his country. Hence, Messi is currently the 4th all-time highest goalscorer in the history of football.
Argentina’s 5-0 win over Estonia came less than a week after the South American reigning champions humbled Italy to win the first edition of the Finalissima at the Wembley Stadium.
In reaction to Messi’s solo performance in the international friendly, Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up for Portugal’s national team in a Nations League Group A2 game against Switzerland.
During the game which took place at José Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, Ronaldo scored twice within four minutes to help his team beat Switzerland 4-0 to grab the first spot in the group.
The two goals extended the all-time goalscoring record of the five-time Ballon d’Or winner to 117 goals. This means that Messi needs to score 31 goals for Argentina before he can overtake his career rival which is possible if he keeps scoring at least two goals against all his opponents and Ronaldo stops scoring.
Hence, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will keep competing in the all-time goalscoring chart for a while and the competition is expected to heat up in the forthcoming 2022 FIFA World World in Qatar.
Tonight…🎆🇦🇷🇵🇹
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) June 5, 2022
⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️ for Messi
⚽️⚽️ for Cristiano
The 🐐 debate will continue long after they retire
For now…enjoy two geniuses at work 🌠 pic.twitter.com/FkhDfzvKrF
