Ronaldo can get nose infront of Messi in hunt for Raul’s record

When Cristiano Ronaldo takes to the field to face Liverpool at the Bernabeu in the Champions League there will be more than the opportunity to help Real Madrid secure a win filling him with relish.

That’s because the Portuguese forward is one goal behind Los Blancos icon Raul in the competition’s scoring charts, but more importantly he leads great rival Lionel Messi by one in the race to overhaul the Spanish striker.

With Barcelona not facing Ajax until 24 hours after their La Liga adversaries, Ronaldo has the chance to break Raul’s record first should he bag a brace against the Reds, a feat Ladbrokes price him up at 6/4 to achieve.

Should he manage it, Messi would need a hat-trick against the Dutch outfit just to draw level with his Ballon d’Or competitor, which while completely possible, is rated at a longer 10/1 chance.

But, as you’ll see from the below BBC tweet, Messi stands a live chance of registering a Champions League triple, having done so more often than Ronaldo during their careers.

Whoever ends up having the honour of leading the competition’s goal-getting, the pair’s exploits in Uefa’s premier club competition are well-worth celebrating:

.@Cristiano Ronaldo v Lionel Messi. Who will reach the #ucl record of 71 goals first https://t.co/BUTGXnJuAO. pic.twitter.com/g9wbrmHjE9

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) November 4, 2014

Raul took 142 games to register his 71 Champions League goals, working out at a simple goal every other game.

Ronaldo has taken just 106 games to get to 70 goals, while the diminutive Argentine has notched 69 in just 89 outings.

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

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