Comparing Cristiano Ronaldo's Champions League Stats to Zlatan Ibrahimovic's

Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic will square off for the second time in two weeks on Tuesday, when Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain meet at the Santiago Bernabeu in the UEFA Champions League. 

At Parc des Princes, the first meeting between the two star forwards and their respective teams was underwhelming, as a cagey contest ended in a scoreless draw. However, Tuesday's outing is expected to carry an added edge given that, with both teams level on seven points and with only games against Malmo and Shakhtar Donetsk to follow, the winner at the Bernabeu will most likely top the group. 

As such, a more attacking showdown should ensue, potentially providing both Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic with opportunities to add to their impressive personal records in European competition. 

But how do their records in the Champions League compare? Though we're all aware Ronaldo is out in front in the goalscoring chart, how close has Ibrahimovic been to one of the game's two preeminent forwards of the 21st century?

Below we take a look.

Overall Scoring Records

	Ronaldo	Ibrahimovic
Games	118	112
Goals	82	43
Goals-to-Games Ratio	0.69	0.38

After Ronaldo's slow start to his Champions League career, his path to 82 goals in the competition has been both staggeringly swift and brutal.

Since scoring his maiden goal for Manchester United against Roma in the tournament's 2006-07 edition, the Portuguese has recorded strike tallies of eight, four, seven, six, 10, 12, 17, 10 and five in the seasons that have followed. At Real Madrid alone, his record reads 67 goals from 66 Champions League games, which is a mind-blowing return in the world's most testing club competition. 

Ibrahimovic, of course, has been less prolific—nearly everyone has—but his Champions League record has improved in recent seasons. 

At Paris Saint-Germain, the Swede has 15 goals in the competition from just 25 games, while in his previous stop at AC Milan, his record read nine in 16.

Both hit rates are significantly higher than those he recorded at Ajax, Juventus, Internazionale and Barcelona. 

Titles, Team Success and Knockout-Round Records

	Ronaldo	Ibrahimovic
Titles	2	0
Trips to Final	3	0
Trips to Semi-Final	8	1

Given Ronaldo's relentless excellence in Europe, it's hardly surprising his teams have regularly been involved in the latter stages of the Champions League. 

Both at Manchester United and Real Madrid, he's lifted the European Cup, and he's been to the semi-finals in eight of the past nine seasons. And this is where the biggest discrepancy lies between the records of the Portuguese and Ibrahimovic.

It remains one of the quirks of the Swede's long and distinguished career that he's not only failed to reach the Champions League final but has only ever made it to a semi-final on one occasion—with Barcelona in 2009-10. 

In an excellent piece for Bleacher Report on the PSG star, Lars Sivertsen sought answers for why that is:

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'I have an Ibra theory, which is that any team with Ibra in it plays badly. No team has been able to play well with Ibra in it,' Italian journalist Gabriele Marcotti told Bleacher Report. He has kept a close eye on Zlatan throughout his career. 'The thing with Ibra is that when you have him in the team, it always makes sense to just hit a long ball to him. It would be stupid not to. Because even if Ibra is bad, it only takes a second for him to do something good and score. And football is a low-scoring game.

'He's always showing for the ball, he always wants to get the ball, so people just go 'OK' and give it to him and see what happens. His skill set is so unique that it's difficult for a manager to work out how to use him while playing well in a rational way.'

Could it be that in an era when teams are better organised and more tactically sophisticated than ever before, teams relying entirely on one player become vulnerable at the very highest level? Is it plausible to suggest that Plan Z is enough to dispatch enough foes domestically to win the league, but in the sharp end of the Champions League, a Zlatan team will inevitably be bested by a more balanced side from the European elite?

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Not only have Ibrahimovic's teams struggled to match the success of those which have had Ronaldo, but Ibrahimovic on a personal level hasn't been able to influence big Champions League matches in the way the Portuguese regularly has. 

	Ronaldo	Ibrahimovic
Games	55	36
Goals	39	7
Goals-to-Games Ratio	0.71	0.19

Indeed, whereas the Ballon d'Or holder's goals-to-games ratio in the competition's knockout rounds is actually superior to that in the group stage, Ibrahimovic's falls quite significantly, the table above indicating he's scored just seven career goals at the pointy end of the Champions League. 

Streaks, Hat-Tricks and Other Statistics

	Ronaldo	Ibrahimovic
Hat-Tricks	3	1
4-Goal Games	0	1
Assists	22	20
Most Goals in a Single Season	17	10
Longest Run of Scoring Games	8	5
10+ Goal Seasons	4	1
Seasons as Leading Scorer	4	0

It comes as no surprise that Ronaldo leads Ibrahimovic in nearly all of the above categories given he's the all-time record holder in a number of them. 

Indeed, among a host of records, the Real Madrid star has set the benchmarks for most goals in a single Champions League season, most consecutive 10-plus goal seasons, most consecutive scoring games and most seasons as leading scorer. Only Lionel Messi has more hat-tricks in the competition than the Portuguese. 

So while Ibrahimovic's record remains impressive, Ronaldo's is simply extraordinary.