Messi or Ronaldo, who was/is better?

B6 6HE wrote: horsebox wrote: How has Ronaldo done it at international level and Messi has not? Won a Euros and a NL with a more limited Portugal side. Messinonly just recently won his first COPA. Fair to say, CR7 has been much better internationally

Ronaldo has undoubtedly performed better for Portugal compared to Messi for Argentina. That is not an argument. Ask the average Argentine and they'll tell you that.
Ronaldo also has a much, much better goalscoring record than Messi internationally.
Ronaldo has also scored more goals in the Champions League than Messi.
Ronaldo has also scored more league goals than Messi.
Ronaldo is the world record holder for goals scored - ever.
Ronaldo has been top scorer in three different countries.
Give Ronaldo Messi's career, as a striker at Barcelona for fifteen seasons and Ronaldo could replicate what Messi did in terms of numbers,.
Give Messi Ronaldo's career, at Sporting Lisbon, at Man United in the Premier League, at Real Madrid, then at Juve, then back at Man United in the toughest league in the world and it is not only unlikely, but pretty much definite, that Messi would not replicate what Ronaldo achieved. 
Messi is great, Beyond great. But Ronaldo is the greatest of all time. 
And I'm a Liverpool fan.

They beat a heavily fancied France side in a final on home soil without him, the very average team did!

My point is if Portugal were so limited as people make out, they would have been smashed by France in a final especially missing their star man for over 90 minutes. 

I wonder what price Portugal were to win once Ronaldo went off injured?

Comparing international football, Ronaldo by a country mile.

Shedite wrote: Comparing international football, Ronaldo by a country mile. Goalscoring record obviously blows it out of the water, even if you took away goals against fodder, he's a mile clear. More goals scored at World Cups too. Comparing their international competition wins... Portugal were 7th favourites in 2016 - behind France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, England and Spain Argentina were 2nd favourites, and that was only Because Brazil were hosts. They started the final as favourites.

The quality of opponents has to be put into any equation when making a goal scoring comparison. Based upon that I think Puskas and Muller have superior international goalscoring exploits than CR7 despite scoring less goals. When Muller and Puskas played the USSR and Yugoslavia were two strong nations rather than the 22/23 nations nowadays. Easier to score against Estonia and Moldova than the USSR.

Cabra Hoop wrote: Shedite wrote: Comparing international football, Ronaldo by a country mile. Goalscoring record obviously blows it out of the water, even if you took away goals against fodder, he's a mile clear. More goals scored at World Cups too. Comparing their international competition wins... Portugal were 7th favourites in 2016 - behind France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, England and Spain Argentina were 2nd favourites, and that was only Because Brazil were hosts. They started the final as favourites.  The quality of opponents has to be put into any equation when making a goal scoring comparison. Based upon that I think Puskas and Muller have superior international goalscoring exploits than CR7 despite scoring less goals. When Muller and Puskas played the USSR and Yugoslavia were two strong nations rather than the 22/23 nations nowadays. Easier to score against Estonia and Moldova than the USSR.

Impossible to compare across eras, as you say, international football changed a lot in that time, both in style of play and number of teams. Back in Puskas' time, the group stage was a joke, in 54 WC, they scored 8 and 9 in their two group games. Imagine the damage Ronaldo would have done in those games