Like I said many times before, I think Messi and Ronaldo are the same in terms of greatness/quality. I see them as equals. And by this I also mean in the NT, Ronaldo is amazing for Portugal and Messi is amazing for Argentina. They are a solution to their NT and not the culprits of anything.
But I really can't stand when people come up with straight blindness when analysing things, ignoring facts and making arguments out of either wrong or extremely biased points. And this happens against Messi but happens mostly against Ronaldo which is a much hated character for several reasons.
That Croatia that faced Portugal in 2016, 3rd place, met us because they had beaten Spain in the group stages and ended 1st in its group. This is the same team and players that in the 2018 WC would reach the final and batter Argentina 3-0 in the group stages. They played really well but our bus was able to fend them off.
And still complaining about Portugal 2016 run while exalting Argentina this year. To go past the group stage they finishing 1st in the group, where actually they simply needed to be 4th out of 5 teams, then they faced Ecuador and Colombia before the final. I repeat, before the final Argentina got in the knockouts Ecuador and Colombia.
Again, I'm not blind so Argentina has no fault of the tournament rules and they got what they deserved as that's what the rules say. So one can't blame Argentina for this run. Still, some people bring great fuss about Portugal in 2016, but are now ignoring their run to the final. And in the final they were outplayed by Brazil, just like Portugal vs France in 2016. But they won, deservedly, because who scores more is who wins. You can't be serious now saying Argentina (or Messi) is the best now UNLIKE Portugal (or Ronaldo) in 2016 because it's the exact same situation.
Messi was the best scorer and assister of the competition? Yes, and he deserves that.
Ronaldo was the best scorer of the competition? Yes, but people say he doesn't deserve and Messi was better.
Well, Messi has 5 goals and 4 assists in 7 games, Ronaldo got 5 goals and 1 assist in 4 games, and Ronaldo faced France, Germany and Belgium in 3 of those games.
So Ronaldo still contributed more goals per game/minute than Messi but the narrative now shifted to "Messi did win it and Ronaldo choked" despite many people going against this narrative and downplaying Ronaldo in 2016 (still the silver boot with 3 goals and 3 assists).
Also ? at Ronaldo won the final because of his teammates when Messi did little vs Brazil, missed a sitter and still is getting lauded as amazing. He does deserve it like I said, because I'm not blind, so I'm happy that his team stood up and he finally won.
I could be mean and say that yet again Messi failed to score against Brazil, basically he still has to score against any big team in official games. He now scored against Chile, in the group stages, and that is now the most difficult opponent he scored against in a final stage of a big tournament. In a group stage where 4 of 5 teams qualify.