Messi vs Ronaldo: The Race to 100 Champions League Goals

The Real Madrid star is now just three shy of becoming the 

tournament's first centurion after his brilliant double against Bayern Munich on Wednesday

Cristiano Ronaldo netted twice for Real Madrid in Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final win over Bayern Munich and, in doing so, edged further ahead of Lionel Messi in the race to become the tournament's first centurion.

The Portuguese international's second-half double in Los Blancos' 2-1 win at the Allianz Arena moved him to 97 goals in Europe's premier cup competition (excluding the play-off rounds), three ahead of his Argentine rival, who failed to register as Barcelona suffered a 3-0 loss at Juventus the night before.

Ronaldo earns Real draw at Bayern

When the season began, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Ronaldo would become the first player to rack up 100 Champions League goals. Although it was Messi who had broken Raul's record (71), in 2014, Ronaldo had stormed past his great rival by netting 16 times during Madrid's triumph last season

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That had taken the former Manchester United man to 93 goals in the Champions League proper, 10 ahead of Messi. However, while Ronaldo had a relatively quiet to start to Madrid's bid for a 12th European Cup triumph, netting just twice in six group-stage appearances, Messi caught fire again.

The No.10 kicked off his campaign with three of Barcelona's seven goals in their demolition of Celtic at Camp Nou to take outright possession of the Champions League hat-tricks record that he had shared with Ronaldo.

Messi bagged another treble (his fifth in tournament history) in his next outing, against Manchester City, before scoring again in the return leg at the Etihad. Then, after a double at Celtic Park, and a solitary strike against Borussia Monchengladbach on matchday six, Messi moved to 93 goals, just two behind Ronaldo.

ALL CREDIT: GOAL.COM