Far more goals in fact. CL finals he leads 4-2, semis `13 - 4 and in quarters 20 - 10.
He has played 2 more finals and 6 more semi final games but there is no doubt that Ronaldo has been a better goalscorer in Europe than him.
Well, there you have it. Ronaldo is a more prolific goalscorer at the biggest stage. It's a proven fact.
Putting a spin on a skill as if any grunt with muscle and stamina can make a good run isn’t doing you any favours.
Passes aren’t always brilliant, in fact a lot of the time they’re short and very obvious when you know the receiver is in his absolute correct position. Making a drilled cross straight across the box has as a difficulty rank in the same way and every Zaha caliber winger is capable of that. And making the right run with the right pace, stop or jump arc is as, if not more, a sign of mental acumen as using your leg to kick the ball properly.
Nah, you’re basically thinking a passer is more important because it’s who you see on TV all the time. Camera is never focused on the players on the edge of the box when a fullback is putting the moves on. Nobody wants to watch that. And the passer only usually has to make a quick decision and do the job with his body. Poachers? They don’t just push their defender away from them playing like a unskilled sack of potatoes. Look at the greats of the position. RvN, Inzaghi.. athletes of that day whose bodies broke down on them and could still perform at nearly 35 years old despite having zero strength.
It boils down to one thing - it’s a team sport. You have to pass to the receiver. Pass doesn’t work without it. Neither does the receiver. Youd always struggle to find one brilliant pass that doesn’t happen without a brilliant run. Discrediting the latter is telling in today’s understanding of football. People often love to praise the passer because his name doesn’t go on the scoresheet with this attitude almost rebellious against strikers, particularly applicable to the Ballon D’Or conversations and so on. This whole tapinaldo rhetoric is tiresome and just highlights people with a pile of shit for a brain.
I disagree that moving off the ball to meet a pass is as hard as the pass itself. Moving off the ball has no component of technique, of actually touching the ball and making it go where you want. But has a lot to do with power and determination. Most world class attacking players know what to do to get in the best place to gain an advantage in front of the defender. But some don't have the will, the speed and the power to do that. Ronaldo has both the drive, and the build to do it. Never underestimate the importance of how well his body is shaped. I have a friend who is a fitness coach, and he says Ronaldo is two levels above any other footballer he's seen in terms of body developement. He is a superb specimen of a footballer. Ronaldo does the same trick every top attacker does. But he is faster, stronger, has a monster will to win and give his best in every top game. This speaks volume about his mentality, but that still leaves him 2nd, after sheer genius. Same old discussion, as with Federer and Nadal. Innate talent, and genius always ends up ranking higher on the greatness scale than will and hard work.
Bur for me pass is always more important than the run. It involves more talent, it involves advanced ball striking techniques (there are dozens of way to hit a pass, and a single mistake would make it a bad one), it involves vision, it involves intelligence, it involves ultimate trust from your teammates who understand your command on the ball.
Ultimately every part is important, but some roles are more important than others in a team. Being as much a creator, passer, football mind, scorer, dribbler all into one, is a more demanding role, than being just a single cog in a well oiled machine, designed to fullfill a single task to great effect: scoring. Again, not to diminish anything from Ronaldo's influence, but he is a scorer, and this is where a lot of his influence beings and ends. Messi is more than that. His influence impacts the game in every way in the final 3rd. Long range shooting, dribbling, set pieces, assisting, setting the tempo, freeing space for others. Every single football action you can make in the final 3rd, Messi does it, or at the very least makes your job easier. Messi is an expert at maneuvering the ball in all aspects of attacking football. Ronaldo is an expert at attacking the ball and shooting. Here lies the difference. Messi takes over more roles sometimes he is the beginning and the end of the same play that ends up in a goal. Ronaldo doesn't do that except rarely.
