Lionel Messi leads Pichichi race but Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more against top clubs

The Barcelona forward is in line to receive this year's Pichichi Trophy, but his Real Madrid rival edges past him when it comes to goals against the best of the rest

Lionel Messi is currently in line to earn his fourth Pichichi, one more than Cristiano Ronaldo (Getty)

Lionel Messi may currently sit top of the Pichichi standings but Cristiano Ronaldo has scored slightly more goals against Spain’s top clubs.

Petter Veland, a Spanish football commentator for Viasat, has broken down the goals of La Liga’s top 22 goalscorers to reveal some intriguing results.

Messi’s 25 goals, four more than team-mate Luis Suarez, see him top the overall rankings. The Argentinian also has the division’s best rate of scoring, with a goal coming roughly every 82 minutes.

Ronaldo trails behind in third place, with a total of 19 goals to his name. One of the few areas in which the Real Madrid forward has a slight advantage over his Barça rival is 'goals against teams placed 3rd-7th', having 6 in total against the best of the rest in Spain.

Sevilla, Atletico Madrid, Villarreal and Real Sociedad have all conceded to him this season, with Real Madrid’s cross-city rivals shipping a hat-trick to Ronaldo in a 3-0 home defeat last November.

Messi, by contrast, has five goals against the five clubs which trail the top two. Despite scoring against all of them, he has only notched once against each.

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of Messi’s goals have been scored with his left foot, with only three coming from his right and one from his head.

Ronaldo, by contrast, is even more one-footed. 14 of his 19 strikes have come from his right boot, through his substantial talent in the air has seen him score five headers.

The player to have scored the most headers in Velland's list of 22 is Ronaldo's team-mate Sergio Ramos, who has nodded in six times.

All seven of the Real Madrid captain's goals this season have come from set pieces and he shares the lowest 'touch-per-goal' ratio with Sporting Gijon's Duje Cop, taking just one touch to score each goal.