Messi vs Ronaldo: Stat Comparison For 2012/13 La Liga Campaign

As long as both remain in the Spanish Primera, it’s difficult to see a player back-and-forth on the individual scale attracting more attention than the one that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have displayed for the last four seasons.
In the 2012-13 campaign, the duo contributed 80 goals to the Spanish top flight, not too far away from 10% of the league’s entire tally (1091), which as a task pulled off between just two players, is remarkable to say the least.
However, while the collaborative feats pulled off by Ronaldo and Messi are amicable, it’s in the conflict of their on-going tug-of-war that we find the most entertaining, so let’s break down just which of the world’s best two players fared better this term.Both being primary cogs in their respective club’s attacks, goals are, as aforementioned, evidently the most significant area in which both players make their biggest contributions.

Comparing sheer quantity, Messi’s record of 46 goals in 32 appearances beats Ronaldo’s 34 goals in 34 games hands down. With an average of just a goal every game, that Portuguese chap certainly isn’t all that talented, is he?
However, Messi has the advantage of being the altruistic focus of Barca’s attack—if you can truly define the club as really operating with one—whereas the attacking options at the Santiago Bernabeu call for a more shared approach among Real’s forwards.

What’s more, it’s the fashion in which Ronaldo has scored his goals that gives reason to think the former Manchester United talisman may be the more rounded maestro. Of his 34 goals, the 28-year-old has netted 18 with his preferred right foot, 10 with his left along with six headed efforts, just for good measure.
Amazing though it might be, Messi’s altogether more one-sided share of 40 goals with his left foot, six with his right and no headed goals to speak of paints a slightly less ambidextrous picture. That being said, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and the Argentine’s slightly prolific formula certainly hasn’t fallen in need of repair just yet.

Standing six inches shorter than Ronaldo, it’s of course unsurprising that Messi fares so much worse in heading than his Real Madrid counterpart. Typical of the superstar pair, both players top their clubs’ list of duels won this season, Barca’s talisman having just edged the competition with 213 individual battles won across all matches while Ronaldo sits just below with 206.
While Messi won just five headed duels, Ronaldo can boast over ten times that amount having won 56 himself, with a success ration of 57%.

It’s in the dribbling that Barcelona’s pint-sized poacher truly comes into his own, though. Famous for the head-down, low centre of gravity approach that makes him so destructive, Messi completed a Liga-high tally of 122 take-ons, almost 50 more than Granada’s Yacine Brahimi, his closest competitor in that aspect.
In comparison, Ronaldo only managed to be successful in 56 of his take-on attempts and failed in 54% of those efforts while Messi was unsuccessful in just 40% of his. In short, if he’s running at you, there’s a very good chance Lionel Messi is going to get to his intended destination.

Aside from their own glory, though, both players are supremely effective when it comes to laying on scoring chances for those around him. Playing with the likes of Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain around him, Cristiano Ronaldo finishes as Real’s second-best supplier, creating 60 opportunities in his campaign while Messi, also second in Barca’s provisional ranks, finished with 45.

Interestingly enough, it was Messi’s chances that proved more efficient, however, with 12 of those being converted into goals, representing a chance creation to assist ration of about 26%. While he may have made more chances, Ronaldo’s playmaking perhaps wasn’t quite as potent considering only 10 of those 60 chances resulted in a goal and, as a result, a significantly lower chance creation to assist ratio of 16%.
With just one yellow card to his name this season, Messi maintains his “nice guy image” and was joint-lowest in terms of cautions amongst the Barca squad. On the other end of the spectrum, Ronaldo ties Sergio Ramos as Real Madrid’s most aggressive star this campaign after racking up a more devious nine yellow cards.
With a sixth La Liga title in hand and another Pichichi trophy to go with it, Lionel Messi has won this round between this almighty clash of the titans. With that in mind, one can just be happy that we even have such a clash to enjoy in the first place and look forward to it all kicking off again later this year.