The march of Cristiano Ronaldo has dissipated the presence of Messi in the Classics. The Argentinian He has not scored or assisted in any of the five games against Real Madrid he has played since the Portuguese crack left the white club. 425 minutes without marking or attending the targets. Tampocó scored in the last duel that, even with CR7 in the white ranks, a fact that contrasts with the 21 goals that The flea He made the whites in the 33 games in which he faced Cristiano (who made 18 Barça in the matches in which both coincided).
In fact, Messi came from scoring in his last Classics in which he faced Cristiano. He scored two in the league visit to the Bernabéu on 16-17 (2-3, with the final goal of the Argentine in the 92 '). In the 2017 Super Cup, he scored in the first leg at Camp Nou (1-3), but not in the lap at the Bernabéu, which curiously, the Portuguese was lost by sanction. In the two league matches he did score a goal in each one: the 0-3 of the Bernabéu (also gave an assist to Aleix Vidal) and the 2-2 of the Camp Nou.
Last season, Messi missed the first Classic without a Christian by injury: the 5-1 at the Camp Nou that sentenced Lopetegui. The Argentine did not mark then neither in the semifinals of the Cup nor in the league visit to the Bernabéu. This season the international albiceleste, and Barça, have dismissed the season of Classics garters (they could still be in Champions) without beating Courtois.
The nine years in which Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi agreed in the Spain League served to germinate a rivalry that transcended the borders of the championship and reached a global dimension. They took the fight for the League pichichi to levels never seen since the time of Zarra, whose record of 38 goals in one season, dating from 1951, was beaten successively by one and the other (Luis Suarez also got it in 2015 -2016). Now, Messi keeps him in 50 goals (2011-2012 season). And they exercised a tyranny in all the individual awards (Golden Ball, FIFA World Player, The Best) until, with Cristiano in Turin, Modric broke that duopolistic hegemony in 2018.