Only Messi can stop Ronaldo’s bid to top UCL goal chart

According to the odds, no one is going to stand in the way of Cristiano Ronaldo becoming this year’s Uefa Champions League top goalscorer.

The talismanic Real Madrid attacker has already bagged 11 goals in his 10 European outings this term and has at least two more games to add to his tally.

Ronaldo has also bagged 29 goals in as many La Liga games during the 2012-13 campaign and has shown a propensity for the sublime with no fewer than four hat-tricks in all competitions, a total aided by a healthy eight braces.

These stats, coupled with the Portugal hitman’s proven abilty to breach the Dortmund defence (he scored when the sides met in the  group stages this year), go some way to explaining his price of 1/5.

Trying his hardest to halt Ronaldo and co. will be Dortmund’s Robert Lewandowski. However, while prolific on the domestic front, with 21 goals in 25 matches this term, the Pole is already five goals behind Ronaldo and would need to see an improvement in his Champions League form to overtake the Madrid man.

Lewandowski has scored more than one goal just once in Europe this season and while he netted against Malaga last time out, he tellingly has failed to find the net in back-to-back matches in this year’s continental competition, somewhat justifying his 80/1 pricing to top the scoring chart.

The other half of the semi-final draw pits Bayern Munich’s Thomas Muller against Ronaldo’s only real rival – Lionel Messi.

Muller, priced at 125/1, has a healthy record in both the Bundesliga and Champions League so far – netting in exactly half of his games – but while this would impress many of his peers, the stats are dwarfed by the goal threat posed by the Argentine.

Messi is just three goals behind Ronaldo in the Champions League, making his odds of 3/1 to be the competition’s top scorer a tempting prospect.

The lethal Barca man has netted 57 times in 45 appearances this year, including 43 in 29 La Liga games, and has topped the Champions League scoring charts in each of the last four seasons.

With 16 braces to his name already, the three-time Ballon d’Or winner has plenty of time to overtake his closest rival and add yet another personal accolade to his already-crowded trophy cabinet.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.