The big battle between old friends Luis Suarez and Leo Messi
The former teammates are rivals now... but they always have been in South America
Until recently they were teammates. They're still great friends. And they also have a healthy rivalry on the pitch in South America. Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez went into the current international break tied on 21 goals in World Cup qualifiers. And they both scored a penalty in the first game for their respective countries, Argentina and Uruguay. Suarez, though, scored two more penalties on Tuesday in the 4-2 loss to Ecuador, while Messi didn't score against Bolivia.
Therefore, Suarez now has 24 goals in 46 qualifying games, an average of 0.52 goals per game. Messi, meanwhile, has scored 22 in 47, an average of 0.47 per game. Qualifying for Qatar 2022 has only just got started, so the battle between the Barcelona and Atletico Madrid forwards is going to be interesting.
Suarez & Neymar start strong
With two games gone in the new qualifying campaign, Neymar and Suarez lead the way with three goals each, along with Peru's Andre Carillo. They're followed by Ángel Romero (Paraguay); Luis Fernando Muriel (Colombia); Roberto Firmino (Brasil); Michael Estrada (Ecuador); and Alexis Sánchez (Chile), who all have two.
In terms of the top scorers in South American qualifiers of all time, the ranking goes: Luis Suarez (24 goals), Leo Messi (22), Hernán Crespo (Argentina, 19), Marcelo Salas (Chile, 18) and Iván Zamorano (Chile, 17).
Luis enters Top 10
Luis Suarez has also entered the Top 10 of all-time goal scorers in World Cup qualifiers. The current Atletico Madrid striker has moved ahead of Jared Borghetti (México) and Ahmed Radhi (Iraq) and level with Edin Dzeko (Bosnia).
Including all games for Uruguay, not just qualifiers, Suarez now has 62 goals for his country, more than Lewandowski with Poland and level with Sweden's Ibrahimovic and Brazil legend Ronaldo.
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