Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo continued their rivalry with two big games in Week Six of the 2014-15 La Liga season. The two superstars had tremendous performances in Week 5 and looked to continuing increasing their impressive stats.

At the start of the week, Lionel Messi got his first chance to strike in the Champions League match against Ligue 1's Paris Saint-Germain. This was Barcelona's first major challenge of the year. The team had not conceded a goal up to that point, but few would claim that the competition was great.

Barcelona failed in its first major hurdle and lost 3-2 to French club.

Messi did little wrong in the game. He scored a goal to put him level with Ronaldo on the all-time Champions League scoring race (now three behind all-time leader Raul) and completed 92 percent of his passes while getting 82 touches. And yet, he failed to do what players of his stature are called on to do -- help his team win a big game. His clutch play was nowhere to be seen as the Argentine was marked prolifically by Paris' defense.

But Messi got a chance at redemption during the weekend at Rayo Vallecano. Admittedly, the team is nothing to write home about, but Messi went in and did his job. But it was far from a stoic performance from the superstar. He scored a goal, the winner at that, in the 35th minute. But he only completed 80 percent of his passes on 66 touches. He received his second worst rating of the year (7.35), according to WhoScored.

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Meanwhile, Ronaldo started his week off to a rough start with a mediocre turn against Bulgarian club Ludogorets Razgrad. Real Madrid was expected to roll past the Bulgarian side, but the team struggled and Ronaldo was not at his best. He had a penalty opportunity early in the match when his team needed a lift, but he failed to convert. He scored a goal later on, but it was wrongfully declared offsides. Eventually he earned another penalty (though it was controversial) and converted on that one. But aside from that, he had 50 touches and converted 91 percent of his passes. He also won 100 percent of his aerials, according to WhoScored and won two dribbles. Not great, but not too shabby.

Ronaldo then got his chance to win the matchup as Real Madrid hosted Athletic Bilbao. And just two minutes in he continued to do what he does best -- score. He headed in a glorious cross from Gareth Bale to put in his 11th goal in the Spanish League this season, just two minutes into the game, punctuated by putting on a dance celebration alongside Marcelo and James Rodriguez.

But he was not done. Ronaldo would add a second goal in the waning minutes of the first half when he finished off a great counter-attack. And then Ronaldo would turn provider when he elected to set up Karim Benzema for the Frenchman's second goal of the match. It was an instance where Ronaldo could have taken a shot and scored his hat-trick but instead opted to be less selfish. It is curious that Ronaldo has been playing a bit more generously of late, almost as if he has been hearing about Messi turning into a more well-rounded player. Does Ronaldo want to do the same?

Regardless, Ronaldo would add his third of the game though not without some luck -- a shot clipped off what looked like his elbow before going into the net. The referee did not seem to catch it and did not make the call for handball. So Ronaldo, who is scoring at will these days, is also getting some luck on his side.

Winner: Is there any question? Goals withstanding (Ronaldo scored four and assisted one while Messi only scored two and assisted none), Real Madrid won two games, while Barcelona only managed one victory. And the two superstars were the reasons for their respective teams' fortunes. Ronaldo now leads the competition 3-2 through six weeks (Week 2 was omitted because of Ronaldo's injury and lack of playing time).

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