Ronaldo, Messi frustrate fans

Published Nov 19, 2014

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London - Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi made their peace at Old Trafford on Tuesday night - but the fans who came out to see them left feeling short-changed.

The superstar pair gave each other an affectionate, if slightly awkward, embrace as they led their countries out for Tuesday night’s friendly and shook hands before kick-off as they tried to counter claims of a bitter rivalry.

But there was great disappointment for supporters who had paid up to £45 (R775) a ticket when neither man re-appeared for the second half as the contest billed as grudge match petered out into a meaningless exhibition.

At least Portugal fans went home happy after one of their raft of substitutes, Raphael Guerreiro, scored an undeserved 92nd-minute winner for his side with a diving header.

Old Trafford was hardly packed to the rafters for this shoot-out between the world’s greatest players. The top tier was shut, reducing the capacity to 45 000, and even the rest of the ground didn’t look that busy until fans took advantage of tickets being sold after kick-off.

Still, that was a secondary consideration for promoters World XI, who knew a global television audience was tuning in to compare Ronaldo and Messi, icons of a generation and the only winners of Fifa’s World Player of the Year since 2007.

Both seemed keen to end any bad feeling, caused by claims Ronaldo’s associates refer to Messi as ‘the dwarf’. Ronaldo couldn’t stop smiling on his Old Trafford return. When the anthems were belted out, he was grinning from ear to ear, delighted to be back at a ground he lit up every other weekend as a Manchester United player between 2003 and 2009.

The problem for Ronaldo is that while he is comparable to Messi in terms of talent and status, his Portugal side are grossly inferior to Argentina as a unit.

The World Cup finalists from last summer, who have since avenged their defeat by Germany, hardly broke sweat in the first 25 minutes and could have been several goals to the good.

Angel di Maria, the Barclays Premier League’s £60million record signing and a fine supporting player to Messi, curled a low shot narrowly wide before the little magician tried an audacious attempt from an acute angle and hit a post.

Javier Pastore then had a header saved at full stretch by Beto before Messi curled a free-kick just over.

The only worry for Argentina - and watching United manager Louis van Gaal - came when Di Maria had his foot stamped on by Nani, still a United player, albeit loaned to Sporting Lisbon.

Van Gaal had an anxious couple of minutes while Di Maria lay on the turf in pain but he ran it off to avoid joining United’s injury list. Any foothold Portugal gained was exclusively down to Ronaldo. He brought Old Trafford to its feet by turning a couple of defenders inside out before firing just over.

Martin Demichelis, of Manchester City, was booked for bodychecking Ronaldo, earning disapproval from the crowd. In fact, United fans leaned towards supporting Portugal, despite Di Maria’s presence.

That said a lot about the popularity of Ronaldo but also the four City players in Argentina’s squad with Pablo Zabaleta, Sergio Aguero and Willie Caballero on the bench.

Messi led the personal head to head against Ronaldo 12-7 going into this game.

But proof this wasn’t comparable to El Clasico or the 2009 Champions League final came when neither Messi nor Ronaldo re-emerged for the second half.

Ricardo Quaresma was the man who had to fill Ronaldo’s boots while Nicolas Gaitan, of Benfica, had the unenviable task of being the ‘new Messi’.

Not surprisingly, the intensity and atmosphere dropped significantly without the main protagonists. Carlos Tevez came on for Argentina after 55 minutes and earned some pantomime boos from the Old Trafford faithful, who will never forgive him for joining City.

But although Argentina continued to look the better team, the second half descended into a stroll. You knew the crowd weren’t fooled when the dreaded Mexican wave started on 73 minutes.

Argentina (4-3-3): Guzman 6; Rocnaglia 5.5, Biglia 6, Demichelis 5.5, Ansaldi 6 (Silva 71); Mascherano 7, Otamendi 5.5, Pastore 6.5 (Pererya 71), Di Maria 6 (Tevez 55, 6), Higuain 5.5 (Lamela 55), Messi 7

Booked: Demichelis.

Portugal (4-5-1): Beto 6.5; Bosingwa 6, Bruno Alves 6, Pepe 5.5 (Fonte 46, 6), Tiago Gomes 5.5 (Guerreiro 51, 7.5); Nani 5, Moutinho 6, Danny 5.5, Tiago 6, Andre Gomes 5.5; Ronaldo 7 (Quaresma 46, 6).

Men of the match: Raphael Guerreiro.

Referee: Martin Atkinson (Eng) 7.29

The number of hat-tricks Messi and Ronaldo have each scored in their careers. Unfortunately, they couldn’t manage one goal between them on Tuesday night.

Daily Mail

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