IT’S A longstanding, never-ending debate: Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, above all, who do you rate?

At tournaments like the World Cup, the height of that discussion only exacerbates; each performance, each game and each goal by either of the two lead to instant comparisons and a lot for others to deliberate.

Fortunately, though, the football showpiece in Russia is now offering a chance to end that enduring debate about which of the two is the best player of their generation. Ronaldo’s Portugal and Messi’s Argentina are just a win away from setting up a tantalising quarter-final clash. There is no doubt, though, that both already belong to the pantheon of footballing legends but this is more of a battle for being the best of their time; between the supreme athlete and the ultimate artist.

A World Cup title for either of them will tilt the scales in their favour for it has always been a barometer for success.

Ronaldo started off in Russia in rousing form; a hat-trick against Spain in the opening match, the highlight of which was a sumptuous late free-kick to secure a point for his side. A headed winner followed against Morocco but then he missed a penalty against Iran.

Messi’s start was almost the opposite, missing a penalty against Iceland and being anonymous in a humiliating defeat against Croatia before sparking to life just when his team needed him the most with a superb three-touch control and finish in a crucial fixture against Nigeria.

They’ve come across each other on numerous occasions with their club sides in the high-stakes Spanish ‘Clasico’ but to ensure a first-ever competitive meeting with their international sides, they need to navigate past tough oppositions in the round-of-16.

A blockbuster Saturday is in store at the World Cup with Argentina taking on France before Portugal face Uruguay. And before the potential Ronaldo-Messi clash, there are some intriguing individual battles as sub-plots in Saturday’s matches.

Portugal defender Bruno Alves, however, made it clear on Thursday that his side’s match against Uruguay is more than a clash between Ronaldo and Messi’s Barcelona team-mate Luis Suarez.

“I don’t think it will be a duel between Ronaldo and Suarez,” said Alves at Portugal’s training base in Kratovo. “It’s a game between Portugal and Uruguay and we will do everything we can to win and that’s our focus.”

Suarez’s two goals saw Uruguay finish top of their group but it won’t be just him who the Portuguese will have to pay attention to. Edinson Cavani is an equally potent goal-scorer.

“It will require a team effort to stop them,” said Alves. “Portugal defend with all their players and it will not be different. There has to be paid special attention to those world-class players but we’re ready to play against anyone. The best strategy is to prepare in training. We need to be very united to stop them.”

The key to Portugal’s success in the last few years, including their triumph at Euro 2016 is that it’s a team united to maximise Ronaldo’s talents; to provide him with those moments where he makes the difference. He’s become a more efficient goal-scorer of late, one who calculates every movement to devastating effect.

It’s something Argentina have tried to do with Messi. Messi took Argentina to the 2014 World Cup final but instead of building on that, the Albiceleste have remained a work in progress.

Two more final heartbreaks followed for Messi — at the 2015 Copa America and the 2016 Copa America Centenario — and unlike Ronaldo, he’s yet to lift a major title with his national team. However, in that must-win game against Nigeria, Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli stumbled upon the perfect formation to make use of Messi’s extraordinary ability.

The game against France is a showdown between Messi and Antoine Griezmann, who at the start of the summer looked destined to join the Argentine at Barca but eventually opted to prolong his stay at their Spanish rivals Atletico Madrid. Like Messi, Griezmann has just one goal in a largely uninspiring World Cup and in the buildup there has been little talk of the two attackers coming face-to-face.

France and Barca defender Samuel Umtiti, however, spoke about Messi’s difficulties with Argentina on Thursday.

“We know he cannot be the same as he is at Barca because he doesn’t have the same players with Argentina,” he said at a news conference in France’s training base in Istra. “It’s often he who has prevented them from losing. But we know that if we show solidarity in defence, we can stop a player like him.”

There was more talk of working as a team over in Bronnitsy, where Argentina have settled at the World Cup.

“We’re preparing for the game in the best way and we’ve to get used to being on top and winning,” said Argentina defender Federico Fazio, with a bruise under his right eye after a training ground incident, sitting alongside team-mate Giovani Lo Celso on Thursday. “After the victory against Nigeria we felt more confident, we know we have great players and we have to take advantage of it.”

Argentina need to find a way to take advantage of Messi, one of their greatest ever players, just like Portugal have done with Ronaldo. The training bases of Portugal and Argentina in the outskirts of Moscow, where Ronaldo and Messi train, are separated by around half an hour on car. Just one game stands between putting them on one pitch.

At 33 and 31 respectively, this may well be the last chance for Ronaldo and Messi to lift the World Cup, the quarter-final in Nizhny Novgorod potentially the last to see them clash at the World Cup and end that long-running debate.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2018