Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo returned to their respective clubs looking to continue their terrific seasons.

And while both players performed at their utmost best on Saturday, one stood out for a number of reasons.

Prior to the international break, Messi made history and then delivered his worst performance of the year. He tied Raul's 71 Champions League goals and jumped past Ronaldo in that particular race.

His history-making would continue in his team's match against Sevilla, as he would become the greatest La Liga scorer of all time. He tied the record set by Telmo Zarra set over 60 years ago with a tremendously placed free kick to give his side a 1-0 lead.

He would then break the record with the fourth goal for Barcelona in 72nd minute and capped the night with a hat trick.

But his performance was exemplary because it did not just display goal-scoring trickery, but everything that people have come to love from the Argentine. He had 100 touches, second most on the team, and completed a whopping 95.6 percent of his passes. He had five shots, all of them on target, and six dribbles. It simply does not get better than that for anyone.

Which brings us to Ronaldo. How did he perform? His game with Real Madrid actually came first. There was a tremendous amount of hype surrounding Real Madrid's visit to Eibar. The underdog was hosting the giants for the first time ever and many wondered how they would respond to such a challenge.

It did not look good for Ronaldo and company in the early going as the small club was aggressive in the midfield and constantly looked threatening on the counter.

But Ronaldo became the catalyst for the team's opening goal when he saved a ball from going out of bounds and flicked to James Rodriguez in the middle of the penalty area. It probably should not have counted as Ronaldo's initial pass to Karim Benzema was, in fact, off side. But Ronaldo does not make the calls and it is truly exemplary that he did not quit on the play and made something out of nothing.

Then he scored his own goal off a nice pass from Dani Carvajal. And he closed his evening with a well-taken penalty.

Ronaldo completed 83 percent of his passes on the evening and made four key passes. He had four shots on goal with two of them on target.

Who Wins?

Ronaldo had a good night. No one can doubt that. But Messi upped him in every possible way.

Three goals to two and none were off a penalty. Better passing completion rate. More shots on target. More touches. And even stronger competition. Barcelona was facing a terrific Sevilla side that is competing for a top four stop in the Spanish League. Real Madrid was facing a newly promoted side that could easily fall off the map by the time the season ends.

Messi definitely wins this week and it was not even close (despite the statistics).

Ronaldo's lead has been cut down to 7-3.

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