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Lionel Messi beats Cristiano Ronaldo to equaling Raul's Champions League scoring record

Lionel Messi beats Cristiano Ronaldo to equaling Raul's Champions League scoring record

Coming into this week's round of Champions League fixtures, Cristiano Ronaldo had a one-goal edge on Lionel Messi (70-69) as they both chased Raul's all-time scoring record in the competition (71). Though this is very much the season of Cristiano, he was unable to score in Real Madrid's 1-0 win over Liverpool on Tuesday, giving Messi the chance to jump ahead in Barcelona's match against Ajax on Wednesday. And as we all know by now, Messi doesn't waste chances.

The Argentine scored both of Barca's goals as they beat an Ajax side that played the final 18 minutes with 10 men. In doing so, Messi hopped over Ronaldo and equaled Raul's Champions League scoring record in the 2-0 win.

Here's the goal that did it:

It took Real Madrid legend (and newest New York Cosmos addition) Raul 144 Champions League matches to score his 71 goals, but Messi has done it in just 90. Ronaldo, meanwhile, has 70 goals in 107 games.

But while matching records is nice, surpassing them is where the real glory is at. And when Real Madrid face Basel on Nov. 26, Ronaldo will be gunning for it. The only problem is that Barcelona will play Cyprus club APOEL the day before.

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Brooks Peck

is the editor of Dirty Tackle on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him or follow on Twitter!