Former American football player Michele Grella hasn’t minced words and believes that, despite Cristiano Ronaldo’s two goals against Uzbekistan the other night, he doesn’t deserve any comparisons with Argentine genius Lionel Messi.
Grella, who played a lot of football back in the day in England for clubs like Leeds United, Brentford and Bury, however, acknowledged the Portuguese star has been an incredible footballer over the years and has had an incredible career. 39-year-old Grella has his reasons to believe that Messi and Ronaldo — long-time rivals at the international level — are not in the same conversation anymore.
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“If you think Messi and Ronaldo are in the same conversation, football is maybe not for you. Maybe there's something else for you, because we sat here yesterday, and we said that, and we gave Messi, the flowers, and [Kylian] Mbappe the flowers, [Erling] Haaland the flowers, and now Ronaldo does the same thing, and people are like, 'well, why don't you say the same thing?' Because we watch football for a living, and so I know when a difficult game comes for Argentina, I know that Messi's gonna make the difference. When a difficult game comes to Portugal, I have an inkling from as much of football that I watch, that he's just gonna get in the way like he did in the first game,” Grella said on CBS Sports.
He continued: “So, regardless, he scored two goals today, [he] gave him the flowers. An incredible player. Unbelievable career. But, I think, when the big games come, when the big moments come, I think Messi will be at the forefront of it. I think it'll be critical for Argentina, when the big moments come from Portugal, I don't think Ronaldo will be as critical in those moments. We're not gonna be able to make those conclusions against Uzbekistan, for sure. But Messi has a World Cup. He won the last World Cup with Argentina. I don't think that Ronaldo can play at those levels.”
Can Portugal qualify?
Argentina have already qualified for the Round of 32 with two wins out of two in Group J. Messi scored five goals in those matches. With his first goal against Austria, he became the highest goal scorer in the history of world cups. Portugal, on the other hand, drew their opening game against DR Congo 1-1 before thrashing Uzbekistan 5-0. Now they play group leader Colombia on Sunday morning (India time) and need just one point to reach the next stage.