Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure from Real Madrid doesn’t make them the dangerous team they once used to be, feels Barcelona stalwart, Lionel Messi.
Both the modern day icons competed with each other in the La Liga for nine years before Ronaldo decided to make a move to Turin to play for Italian champions Juventus.
He also added that Ronaldo’s arrival to Juventus makes them one of the clear favourites to taste Champions League glory. Ronaldo won three back-to-back Champions League titles with Real Madrid from 2016-2018.
“Real Madrid are one of the best teams in the world with a great squad (but) it’s evident that the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo makes them less good and makes Juventus (one of the) clear favourites to win the Champions League,” said Messi, as quoted by Catalunya Radio on Monday.
Terming this decision as, ‘surprising’, Messi further added, “It surprised me. I didn’t imagine him leaving Madrid or joining Juventus. There were a lot of teams that wanted him. It surprised me but he went to a very good team.”
Earlier in August, the Argentine forward had made clear that Barcelona would definitely want to take home the coveted Champions League title this year after they had suffered a shocking loss at the hands of AS Roma in the quarter-finals.
The Blaugrana club last won the Champions League in 2015.
It’s time. We have had three years in a row being knocked out of the Champions League and are hurt further still from last season’s result in Rome,” said the 31-year old.
“We have a spectacular squad and we can fight for it. We lost chances to win it in the (Pep) Guardiola era against Inter (Milan) and Chelsea. We were better than them and we could not get to the final because of small details,'” he further added.