Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have made it to the 2026 World Cup, despite both very much being in the twilight of their frankly astonishing careers.
Wherever you fall on the debate about who is better, or indeed, possibly the best of all time, frankly, we’re not here for that. We just want to look at their respective performances at the World Cup.
In today’s SVQ, we’ll look at how Messi and Ronaldo have performed on the biggest stage at international level, then you can all argue about it on social media if you want.
We also have an Ask Opta question about Spain’s struggles in front of goal, and today’s Missing Players game has some Brazilian flair.
Speaking of South American teams, we are yet to see one win at this World Cup. Let’s begin with that…
😬 STAT - South American Struggles
It’s been a disappointing start to the World Cup for South American nations.
Now five days into the tournament, we’ve seen four teams from the CONMEBOL region play at the 2026 finals, but none of them have ended victorious.
Paraguay were up first, but suffered a heavy defeat to co-hosts United States, losing 4-1 to start their quest to qualify from Group D in the worst possible way.
Then Brazil laboured to a 1-1 draw with Morocco the following day, before Ecuador suffered a last-minute defeat to Ivory Coast on Sunday in Philadelphia.
Uruguay were the fourth South American nation to play at this World Cup, and although they massively improved after half-time against Saudi Arabia, they were unable to completely turn the game around and drew 1-1 thanks to Maxi Araújo’s equaliser 10 minutes from time.
South American sides are winless in their first four games, then, making it the worst start to a World Cup by nations from that continent since the 1974 finals, when CONMEBOL sides failed to win their first nine games, all in the group stage.