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Former Real Madrid midfielder Guti believes Cristiano Ronaldo trails Lionel Messi because he fails to deliver performances in the big games. Ronaldo won the Pichichi award last year after finishing as the top scorer in La Liga but Messi enjoyed the more successful club campaign as he lifted the La Liga and Champions League title. Guti left Madrid last summer and believes the Argentinean’s performances in the big games give him the edge over the Portuguese striker. He told Punto Pelota, ‘Ronaldo is a great player and has been decisive in many games, yet in the big games he doesn’t deliver, which is something Messi has done. The top stars are the ones who perform in the top-level games’. He also added, ‘Real Madrid have yet to reach Barcelona’s level. It will be very hard to beat them if you line up all players against each other one-by-one’.

Messi has scored a remarkable 180 goals in 269 games since breaking into the first team in 2004 and smashed 53 goals in 55 games last season as Barcelona picked up the La Liga and the Champions League. He was the stand out player in the Champions League final and managed 12 goals in 13 games in Europe’s top competition. At the age of 24, he has already won five La Liga titles, one Copa del Rey and three Champions League titles in a remarkable career so far. Ronaldo on the other hand, moved to Madrid in 2009 and has scored 86 goals in 89 games, including 40 league goals last season which was a new record. He has only won the Copa del Rey since his move from Manchester United however and has watched Barcelona dominate world football for the past few seasons.

Madrid have been accused of ignoring the importance of youth in recent seasons as Barcelona have developed a team which is full of stars who have risen through the youth team. This was further shown through the Spanish Under-21 team this summer which included young Barcelona stars Montoya and Thiago. Guti added, ‘We didn’t care about bringing players through the youth ranks. We spent money on buying new players rather than creating our own. The biggest sadness is that I see Casillas is the only youth product in the team’.

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