Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo share unwanted records after Copa America and Euro 2024 group stages.
Football icons Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have shared an unwanted record after the group stages of Copa America 2024 and Euro 2024. Despite their team success, they will be disappointed with their individual performances.
Accordingly, Messi failed to score any goals in the group stage of a major international tournament for the first time since Copa America 2011. On the other hand, this is the first time Ronaldo failed to score any goals in the group stage at Euro and World Cup.
Ronaldo and Messi failed to score in the group stage of Euro and Copa America 2024 (Photo: Getty).
La Albiceleste started the 2024 Copa America with a 2-0 win over Canada, with Messi assisting Lautaro Martinez in the 88th minute. In the 1-0 win over Chile, M10 was equally impressive, creating 5 chances, completing 32/34 accurate passes (94%), 7/11 successful dribbles (64%) and 3/3 long passes (100%).
However, Lautaro Martinez is the standout player for Argentina at the moment. In the final group stage match against Peru, the Inter striker shined once again, scoring a brace to help the World Cup champions win 2-0.
Coach Lionel Scaloni rotated his squad heavily, meaning Messi did not feature in the match at all, thus ending his group stage campaign without a goal.
Portugal, on the other hand, kicked off their Euro campaign with a 2-1 win over the Czech Republic, thanks to a late winner from youngster Francisco Conceicao. Ronaldo had a decent game, but had very few touches of the ball (32), missed a big chance and ended the game goalless.
Ronaldo failed to score in the group stage of a major tournament for the first time (Photo: Getty).
In Portugal’s next 3-0 win over Turkey, the 39-year-old was largely kept out of the game, but tried to get more involved. He set up former Manchester United teammate Bruno Fernandes for the third goal, but was unable to score himself.
In the final game, Georgia stunned Portugal by beating them 2-0. Ronaldo looked a shadow of himself, having just 18 touches, completing just 8/12 passes (66%) and creating just one chance before being substituted in the 66th minute.