History | Messi Vs Ronaldo

World Cup Statistics

5

2 Qatar 2022

4

1

5 *to be continued

4

2 Russia 2018

1

4

0

4

7

1 Brazil 2014

4

1

3

5

1 South Africa 2010

0

1

4

3

1 Germany 2006

1

0

6 Appearances Assists Goals

Appearances Assists Goals

Goals Assists Appearances

Brief History at the World Cup

Argentina has a long and successful history at the World Cup. Since the first World Cup in 1930, Argentina has been in 18 World Cup tournaments, playing 84 matches, a little over half of which ended in Argentinian victory. The culture and tone of the country around the World Cup really started to change when Diego Maradona brought home two winners medals in 1978 and 1986. These victory’s gave Argentines the belief that they could compete in every tournament they played in and they placed these expectations on their future teams.

The introduction of Lionel Messi into the Argentine soccer roster in 2006 was an exciting period for the country as the young player, who then played for Barcelona, gave the country belief that he could help propel them to the highest level once again. Although Messi scored in this tournament, the team ended up losing to Germany in the Quarter Finals in extra time, only for Italy to win the competition later on.

Argentina was looking to bounce back from this disappointment as they hired Diego Maradona as the national team coach to take Messi under his wing and mold the team into winners, but unfortunately, the story was much the same as Argentina crashed out of the tournament to Germany again, this time losing 4-0 in the Quarter Finals. The 2014 tournament in Brazil is one that remains in the hearts of many Argentine fans as Messi was able to muster up four goals throughout the tournament and lead Argentina to the World Cup final, for them to lose 1-0 in extra time. As the team looked to bounce back in 2018, they saw themselves crash out in the first knockout game to France, who later went on to win the entire tournament.

The passing of Argentina legend Diego Maradona in 2020, set-up Argentina to play their first World Cup without him, which made the Qatar 2022 tournament extra special for the country. The combination of Maradona’s passing and Messi’s last World Cup bred a spirit of unity in the country to win the competition for both of them and end the 36 year drought.

The story for Portugal’s World Cup history is drastically different, as the country had only been to three World Cup’s before Ronaldo’s introduction to the national team leading them to five consecutive World Cup appearances. In 2006, a young Ronaldo joined an established Portugal team and the team was able to finish fourth in the tournament, but unfortunately for Portugal, they haven’t been able to make it that far ever since, losing in the round of 16 in 2010 to Spain, failing to get out of the group stage in 2014, and losing to Uruguay in the round of 16 in 2018. With a strong core of players playing across Europe’s top five leagues, Portugal may be in its golden generation, which gives Ronaldo and the country another shot at trying to win the tournament.