On Saturday in La Liga, Real Madrid and Barcelona will wave farewell to 2017 in the best possible fashion. Their final game of this calendar year will see them face each other in El Clasico, with Santiago Bernabeu being the venue.
It will also see Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi wrap up an eventful year. The Ballon d’Or kings enjoyed great highs and sad lows over the past 12 months, but their stats remained amazing. Here are their numbers from 2017.
Messi
Played 63
Scored 53
Assisted 15
Cristiano
Played 59
Scored 53
Assisted 13
It’s surprising: the “selfish” Ronaldo who played fewer games in 2017 has as many goals as his Argentine rival in this calendar year and only two fewer assists. One reason for this is of Cristiano’s 12 Champions League goals last season, 10 came in the knockout stage which began this year. From Messi’s 11, all but one came in the group stage, which was in 2016.
Leo outscored the recent Ballon d’Or winner for his club, netting 49 goals to Cristiano’s 42. This isn’t surprising since La Pulga won last season’s Pichichi and is this season’s top scorer in La Liga.
Cristiano outshined the 30-year-old on the international level, however, as he scored 11 times compared to Messi’s four. The Portuguese ace averaged a goal-per-game in 2017 for his national side en route to securing a 2018 World Cup spot.
Both scored three hat-tricks each in 2017. Both Tied for most goals and hat-tricks in 2017, one could emerge triumphant in both those categories when Real Madrid and Barcelona face off in El Clasico on Saturday.
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