European Sports Media, the media organization which awards the Golden Boot is to hold a meeting on Wednesday to decide whether in cases where two players have scored the same number of goals, the deciding factor should be the number of games played and the amount of playing time. In which case, CR7 would have a clear advantage.

Cristiano Ronaldo could have won half the Golden Boot on Sunday without even playing in Balaídos. He currently leads the ranking of best European league scorer together with Luis Suárez, both with 31 goals to their names. However, it is still not clear whether the Portuguese striker will have to share the prize with Suárez if he doesn't manage to score against Espanyol.

According to ESM, Ronaldo has played three matches (30 versus 33) and 309 minutes less (2,655 versus 2,964) than Suárez in their respective leagues, the competition the award is based on. The Real Madrid scorer's average per game is 1.03 goals, slightly above the Liverpool striker's (0.93).

If it is finally decided to introduce the new rule, the spotlight will shift to the rivalry between Leo Messi with 28 goals and Diego Costa with 27.