Golden Shoe 2014-15: Europe's Top Goalscorers, Updated Rankings and Analysis

Cristiano Ronaldo maintained his four-goal lead atop this week's Golden Shoe rankings, scoring during Real Madrid's 3-1 win over Malaga to put himself on 39 strikes in this year's La Liga season.

A missed penalty, struck against a post, prevented the Portuguese star from extending his lead at the top.

His Barcelona rival Lionel Messi bagged himself a 35th domestic goal of the campaign during the Blaugrana's 2-0 win over Valencia to keep this season's individual rankings predictable at the top. However, clinical performances across the continent signalled much change below the untouchable duo.

Here's a look at this week's rankings:

Position	Player	Club	Goals x Factor	Points
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	39 x 2	78
2	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	35 x 2	70
=3	Sergio Aguero	Manchester City	20 x 2	40
=3	Harry Kane	Tottenham	20 x 2	40
=3	Antoine Griezmann	Atletico Madrid	20 x 2	40
6	Jonatan Soriano	Red Bull Salzburg	26 x 1.5	39
=7	Alexander Meier	Eintracht Frankfurt	19 x 2	38
=7	Diego Costa	Chelsea	19 x 2	38
=9	Alexandre Lacazette	Lyon	25 x 1.5	37.5
=9	Eran Zahavi	Maccabi Tel-Aviv	25 x 1.5	37.5

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

Remember, each goal scored is multiplied by a factor which correspondences to the difficulty of the league. The highest weighting is given to the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A, which multiplies goals scored by two to create a final points total. 

Aguero, Kane and Griezmann Going Punch for Punch

We've entered the part of the season where injuries can create a lasting impact on the Golden Shoe rankings.

Jon Super/Associated Press

Both Chelsea's Diego Costa and Eintracht Frankfurt's Alexander Meier—the first two players behind you know who to reach 19 goals this season—have now seen their totals overtaken by Manchester City's Sergio Aguero and Tottenham's Harry Kane. Both have missed significant playing time through injury in recent weeks.

Aguero became the first Premier League player to reach 20 goals this season with his simple finish against West Ham, but hours later, Kane stepped up to match his mark. Despite City's poor performances of late, Aguero is well along the road to beating his previous best of 23, set in 2011-12, per WhoScored.com.

Scott Heppell/Associated Press

Kane has only broken into Spurs' team this season, and despite a so-called "dry spell" of two matches, remained composed to slot beyond Newcastle United goalkeeper Tim Krul. He joined an elite group in doing so, per OptaJoe:

Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann has enjoyed a terrific burst of late, scoring six in his last four La Liga matches to join Aguero and Kane on 40 points. His double sent Diego Simeone's men to victory over Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday and moves Griezmann up to joint third in the overall stakes.

His quality can be seen below:

Red Bull Salzburg striker Jonatan Soriano also continues to work his way up the table. The 29-year-old scored a simple brace during his side's 6-0 win over Wiener Neustadt in his last appearance, taking his total to 26 in the Austrian division.

Unfortunately for Soriano, the league's weighting sees him come in one point lower than the 40-pointers mentioned above. He should be earmarked as a legitimate threat to this year's third place behind Ronaldo and Messi.

Lyon's Alexandre Lacazette scored his 25th goal of the season during the side's win over Bastia, but was unable to increase his tally in Sunday's dramatic 2-2 draw with Saint-Etienne. He drops from equal seventh to equal ninth, joined by Maccabi Tel-Aviv hitman Eran Zahavi.

Kerstin Joensson/Associated Press

The European football season is drawing to a close, so the likes of Aguero, Kane and Griezmann don't have much time to distinguish themselves below the top two.

It's perhaps symbolic of Ronaldo's power that you could add two of the aforementioned players' totals together and only just beat his score. The Madrid man faces Celta Vigo before the next update, a team who he scored a hat-trick against earlier in the season. Bet against him at your peril.