Stage set for world’s greatest

THERE are questions and then there is the question: Leo Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo?

There is something vaguely absurd, maybe even a little offensive about it, but it is unavoidable. Everywhere you turn they are asking. Except on either side of Spanish football’s great divide — they, after all, are already sure whose side they are on, twisting the questions to arrive at the answers upon which they have already decided. Hoping desperately that tonight proves them right.

Ask Ronaldo, ask Messi and they give the same answer: this is Barcelona versus Real Madrid, not Ronaldo versus Messi. They are right, of course. But they are also wrong. It is likely that 10 World Cup winners will be on the pitch, 13 in the squads, yet attention will be drawn to two men who have never won the trophy and whose impact on this summer’s tournament was negligible. Practiced in the art of reductionism, teams are so often boiled down to their stars. Tonight even more so.