Asked about Cristiano Ronaldo and his place in the history of football, MARCA.com readers put the Portuguese as the second best player ever. Fans believe only Messi is placed higher

Fans believe only Messi is placed higher, and he beats everyone in the following order according to votes received: Cristiano, Maradona, Zidane, Pelé, Di Stéfano and Cruyff.

On MARCA.com, we asked what position Cristiano holds in the history of football. Messi received the most votes from the 81,000 participants, making him, in their eyes, the greatest player of all time. He is closely followed by the Golden Boot winner - 41% made the Argentinean the best and 30% voted for CR7.

A long way back in the voting were a host of other legends. Maradona was the third most popular and then Zidane ahead of Pelé, Di Stéfano and Cruyff, the other greats of this game.

The battle goes on

The Cristiano-Messi duel is never-ending. The Argentinean scored two goals in Amsterdam, and equalled Raúl's 71 goals in the Champions League.

Cristiano has one fewer; he ended the game on Tuesday against Liverpool without seeing the back of the net.

The fight to become the top goalscorer in the history of the Champions League is the latest battle between the current two best players in football - a fight which keeps going from record to record and award to award, like who's going to win this year's Ballon d'Or.