Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have finally arrived after struggling through the opening few weeks of the season.

Both superstars got two chances to prove their mettle in week four of the 2015-16 season -- once in the Champions League and a second time in the Spanish league. Both stars faced challenging UCL matches and "easy" Liga games and wound up with contrasting results in both games.

Which superstar was the winner of Week 4?

Ronaldo got the first shot at the Champions League and Spanish League. He played in front of his home fans on Tuesday in a UCL clash with Shakhtar Donetsk. A few things were at stake for Ronaldo. Five goals would put him level with Raul atop Real Madrid's all-time scorer's table with 323 goals. Moreover, any goal would give him sole possession of the top goal count in the Champions League, besting Lionel Messi would was tied with him at 77.

Ronaldo topped one tally but fell short of the latter. For those consider five goals a tall order, just consider that Ronaldo put that tally away a few days earlier and only one goal was from a penalty. He scored three against Shakhtar, two on controversial penalties and one from close range, nodding home a rebound.

It was not a vintage showing from the superstar, and detractors might mention that when he is not scoring goals from "tap ins" or penalties, he is doing little else. The reality however is that Ronaldo is quite the setup man up top. He had three key passes against Shakhtar and likely would have had an assist or two if Karim Benzema was not as wasteful in front of goal. Moreover, for all the talk of easy goals, it is easy to forget that few players score that many goals that consistency, regardless of the kind. Ronaldo is efficient in front of goal and knows how to find the space inside the box to finish. Moreover, he was denied by some strong keeping and could have finished with more goals on the week with better luck.

That was especially true against Granada when the superstar had eight shots on goal and five on target. He was constantly stymied by Andres Fernandez who came up huge quite a number of times. Ronaldo also created opportunities for teammates in a game but ended the week with only three goals scored.

Meanwhile Messi endured a similar week but in reverse order.

His opening match of the week against Roma was a frustrating evening for the Argentine star. Messi scored no goals and had no assists for his team. He was horribly inaccurate in the game, taking eight shots and only getting one on target. He hit the crossbar, he had two key passes and was often outmuscled losing the ball a game-high five times.

Sunday's performance against Levante was another story altogether. He set up Marc Bartra's goal to open the floodgates; at that point Barcelona was having a poor game and looked frustrated against a stingy Levante side. Messi had eight dribbles, only lost the ball twice and scored two goals.

One goal was off a penalty shot and the other was a display of his magical dribbling abilities. That said, the performance was not perfect and Messi actually missed a second penalty before his second goal. On three penalties this year, Messi has missed twice, and it might to be time to hand over those duties to Neymar who has been tremendous from the spot every time given a chance.

Season Stats

Messi has six goals in eight games in all competitions and now has one assist. Three of those goals are in La Liga and the other three came during the preseason competitions.

Ronaldo meanwhile has eight goals in five games this year with five in La Liga and three in the Champions League. Interestingly, Ronaldo has scored in only one of four La Liga games, and his lone assist also came in that single game.

Calendar Year Stats

Messi has 45 goals and 23 assists in 51 games in 2015 while his great rival has 40 goals and 11 assists in 38 games in 2015. Of Messi's goals, 39 have come for Barcelona while four goals have come with Argentina. Ronaldo has 37 of his goals for Real Madrid and only three for Madrid; he has played in 34 games for his club this year while Messi has competed in 42 for Barcelona

Winner

It is a truly tough one to be sure. Ronaldo won two games with Real Madrid, scoring three goals while his rival had a tremendous game and led his team to victory as well. So it really comes down to which of the two had a better "bad" game. Messi struggled mightily against Roma while Ronaldo's bid to score was stopped by some superhuman moments from Fernandez.

So Ronaldo ties the score at 2-2.

Past Editions in 2015-16

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3