One more Lionel Messi v Cristiano Ronaldo tussle enjoyable, but curtain coming down on great rivalry
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Updated 09/12/2020 at 10:27 GMT
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo clashed again in the Champions League at the Camp Nou, but this was a pale imitation of the sort of spectactles these two legends used to serve up. Barcelona and Juventus have both endured a difficult start to the season and this was a match between two flawed sides, and two players who are having to face up to their footballing mortality.
Messi y Ronaldo abrazándose
Image credit: Getty Images
Maybe it was the recent passing of Diego Maradona teaching us to cherish our game’s greats while we can, but there was an undeniable poignancy to the pre-match embrace between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at the Camp Nou. Going on the expressions of the two legends, they felt the poignancy of the moment too, greeting each other with a genuine warmness.
The match that was served up between Barcelona and Juventus was another reminder of football’s mortality and how the individual rivalry that defined an era of the game is coming to an end. With Ronaldo’s move to Italy two years ago, distance was put between the pair, but this season’s Champions League drew them together again.
Even if only for nostalgia’s sake, another episode of this great duel was welcome. There were glimpses of the brilliance Messi and Ronaldo still possess, even at this late stage of their careers. Messi would have found the back of the net had it not been for Gianluigi Buffon’s efforts. Ronaldo still managed to bag a brace, proving he is just as strong as ever from the penalty spot.
However, this was a game that was played around Messi and Ronaldo rather than through them. Neither dictated the action like they did not so long ago. Barcelona still look to Messi more than any other player, but is largely down to muscle memory. Whether it’s through physical decline or a decline in the team-mates around him, Messi has been unable to affect many games this season.
Ronaldo’s transition into a penalty box poacher started years ago, but it’s a role he has fully embraced since joining Juventus. Now 35 years old, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner doesn’t have the physicality to operate in the wide forward role he carved out for himself at Real Madrid. He finds it difficult to play even as a lone forward, with Alvaro Morata deployed alongside Ronaldo to do a lot of the leg work across the frontline.
There are questions over how both players will manage the final phase of their career, with Messi very publicly disgruntled by the political situation at Barcelona and Ronaldo also linked with a move away from Juventus. A switch to Paris Saint-Germain has been mooted, as has a return to Manchester United.
Of course, Ronaldo will likely feel happier with his lot in life at the moment. Juventus have had their troubles over the early part of the season, with Andrea Pirlo toiling at times as a rookie manager, but there is a structure and a culture in place at the club that continues to sustain them at the elite level.
Barcelona, however, don’t have that structure or culture. Not anymore. This was the difference between the two teams on the pitch on Tuesday night. The quality of Barca’s squad is comparable to that of Juventus’, but the 3-0 outcome was reflective of the more fundamental problems at the Camp Nou.
Juve are giving Ronaldo a chance to age gracefully. Pirlo is building a team around the 35-year-old rather than on top of him like Barcelona have these last few years. For all the hundreds of millions spent in the transfer market on the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann and more, it’s still largely down to Messi (who registered all seven of Barca’s shots on target against Juve) to come up with something.
This may well have been the last Messi v Ronaldo spectacle, at least at this level of the European game. They will almost certainly face each other in a ‘Team Messi’ and ‘Team Ronaldo’ charity arranged by Robbie Williams and Jonathan Wilkes at some point in the future, but the golden age of this rivalry is in the past. Like most reboots, this episode wasn’t quite the same.
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