Ronaldo or Messi? World Cup will settle the debate

Cristiano Ronaldo’s thrilling hat-trick in Tuesday’s play-off second-leg in Sweden confirmed Portugal’s place at next summer’s World Cup finals, and may have secured the Real Madrid attacker the 2013 Ballon d’Or award.

But it did not close the debate over who is the world’s best player.

Ronaldo scored all four of his country’s goals over the two legs against the Swedes, sending his side to Brazil, and the Lisbon media into raptures.