Messi vs Ronaldo penalties

Penalties in the Champions League

Ronaldo converted 19 of 22 (86.36%); Messi converted 18 of 23 (78.26%). Ronaldo leads by one scored penalty and 8.10 percentage points on this definition. That describes these 45 attempts, not the probability of their next penalty.

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What counts, and why it matters

A penalty taken during a match, including extra time, belongs in this comparison. A kick in a deciding shootout does not. Shootout successes are excluded from official goal totals and from both Opta attempt totals used here. A missed attempt followed by a rebound goal is one unsuccessful penalty and a separate non-penalty goal.

Conversion is scored penalties divided by attempts, multiplied by 100. “Not converted” is attempts minus scored: five for Messi, three for Ronaldo. It combines saved and missed kicks; this page does not invent a split between them. UEFA independently corroborates the 18 and 19 scored totals.

Scoring more penalties and converting a higher percentage answer different questions. A conversion percentage needs its denominator, which is why attempts sit beside goals. These are descriptive career-in-competition figures, without adjustments for goalkeeper, game state or pressure.

Inspect all 269 Champions League goal records · Explore matching appearances and archive definitions. The goal ledger reconciles to 129 and 140 at this review. Aggregate verification does not classify every historical individual goal in the event explorer.

Evidence and coverage

Reviewed published primary aggregates; not a complete independently classified goal-by-goal archive. Full senior-career scoring totals are now available in a separate reviewed scope; career attempts and strict direct-restart totals remain incomplete. Club, season and shootout splits are not inferred from these aggregate records.

• UEFA · published / updated 2026-10-06
  Messi: 129 goals, 163 appearances, 13,585 minutes, 18 penalty goals; Barcelona 120 goals and Paris 9.
• UEFA · published / updated 2026-07-28
  Ronaldo: 140 goals, 183 appearances, 15,937 minutes, 19 penalty goals and 12 direct free kicks. Qualifying goal excluded.
• Opta Analyst · published / updated 2026-05-26
  In-match penalties only: Messi 18 scored from 23 attempts; Ronaldo 19 from 22. Shootouts excluded.

Snapshot scoring-methods-457067c3f21242a5. Checked 2026-11-01T11:29:24+00:00. Source publication dates differ from the match dates shown above. A changed named snapshot returns a review notice instead of silently reproducing different numbers.

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