El Clasico: Advantage Messi as Ronaldo misses key ‘cogs’

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Of course those players can still win the Clasico with and for Ronaldo doing what they know best, but the advantage is firmly with Messi for whom nothing in a Barca set-up designed to allow him the full use of his powers has changed

From through west London to the blue half of Manchester you pick up the strong aroma of new money, and from the red side of Manchester through Munich and Turin to Milan there is the old scent of aristocracy, and yet still no match-up in Europe gets the world more positively tingling like the EL Clasico.
The romance of the Clasico pre-dates time, and names like Alfredo Di Stefano, Johan Cruyff, Emilio Butragueno, Hugo Sanchez, Michael Laudrup, Raul and Ronaldinho have decorated the spectacle over the different eras, a legend currently being sustained by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

These two have together added a spice none of the others managed, because of a thrilling rivalry first created by the media and a public split down the middle, a rivalry Ronaldo was always desperate for and Messi was only dragged into but has since embraced.
That rivalry has come to define this most daunting of fixtures for a few years now, making everything else however significant come off like a sub plot which wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t somehow intricately linked.
If it was any other match across the globe, or even this particular one in a different era, the Luis Suarez debut alone would headline it; or the fact that it is the first for manager Luis Enrique who played for them both; or a clash between two other superstars - Neymar and James Rodriguez - who are stylishly justifying heavy price tags; in another time, even a banner reading ‘Battle Of Croatia’ would suffice, considering that the performances of Luka Modric on one end and Ivan Rakitic on the other will have a huge influence on the outcome …

But all those have to settle for being sideshows, especially now that Messi is a goal away from equaling and a couple from breaking the La Liga’s 70-year standing all-time record of 251, Ronaldo is on a single-season record streak of his own, and the two in a head-on scramble for the Ballon D’Or for the sixth straight year. The winner of this direct confrontation will leave and indelible mark on the minds of the voters, and these two protagonists of delightfully contrasting styles know it all too well.
Although this time any match-winning feats from Messi on their own might not be enough to win him back the Ballon D’Or he lost to Ronaldo after an injury-plagued last year, the Argentine does have the advantage over his Portuguese nemesis tonight.
You see, while Messi has for years been reliant on the dominant possession and pressing powers of his teammates, their superior passing abilities and perhaps more crucially their willingness to be used as walls and dummies by the Little Master on his way to goal, Ronaldo has been even more dependent on his own sidekicks even if it might not be obvious at first.

Defining match-up
Messi can dominate the Clasico without scoring, his ability to attract and bamboozle several opponents opening up space for others to eat into, and his knack for producing game-deciding passes coming to the fore.
Ronaldo on the other hand only wins matches like these by rewriting the scoreboard, and where a solo effort for Messi almost certainly means a mazy run around and past several opponents before stroking the ball home, for Ronaldo it would be the equivalent of a 30-yard screamer flying and wickedly swerving its way into the top corner.

Otherwise, the Portuguese goal machine looks to a teammate to find his feet for a close-range tap-in with a slide rule pass; to find his head with a well-weighted set-piece or cross; to win a freekick for him in good range by drawing a foul from an opponent; or to pass perfectly and early enough to allow him exploit his pace, gain a few yards on the defenders and come face-to-face with a stranded keeper without being caught offside, as Mesut Ozil so memorably did for the title-clinching winner at the Camp Nou in the Jose Mourinho days in 2012.
Ozil is of course long gone, but for the kind of service I refer to Ronaldo is going to miss Angel Di Maria recently departed, and especially Gareth Bale, crocked too, whose phenomenal pace and deliveries the Portuguese has always greedily gobbled up.

Ronaldo can only influence the El Clasico by scoring in it. But while he has the form, class and a great record in this fixture, the absence of Gareth Bale and departure of Angel Di Maria has limited his supply

He was meant to have for company Javier Chicarito who would rather score than pass, who would rather sit in the six-yard-box than drift wide and create space like Karim Benzema, but thankfully for him the Frenchman is back. He will have Rodriguez, Isco, Modric and Toni Kroos whose superb passing through the middle will be relatively easier for Barca to deal with than pace and width.
Of course those players can still win the Clasico with and for Ronaldo doing what they know best, but the advantage is firmly with Messi for whom nothing in a Barca set-up designed to allow him the full use of his powers has changed.

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