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League leaders Barcelona look for a third league win in a week as they host strugglers Real Zaragoza at Camp Nou today. Barceona needed a late goal from top-scorer Lionel Messi, who has 27 league goals, to seal a vital 1-0 win at Valencia on Wednesday and the champions are keen to maintain their seven-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid. Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez said ‘The Valencia win was a very important result. Points like these are what could win us the title.’ ‘There are still some difficult games to play. There’s a lot at stake. But we’re optimistic. We are pleased with the team dynamic, the way we’re playing and the attitude.’ Xavi returned from a calf injury against Valencia but Barcelona are still without goalkeeper Victor Valdes and captain Carles Puyol who are both doubtful for next Tuesday’s Champions League second leg at home to Arsenal. After difficult away matches at Real Mallorca and Valencia, Barcelona will be glad to be back at home although Zaragoza, two points above the relegation zone, are on a high after a 2-1 win at Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday. Real Madrid closed back to within seven points of Barcelona with an emphatic 7-0 home win over Malaga on Thursday to maintain their 100 per cent home record. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in Madrid’s biggest win of the season and coach Jose Mourinho will hope his side can now improve on their erratic away form – they have dropped 14 points on the road – in Sunday’s trip to Racing Santander. Racing are unbeaten in their last five league outings under new coach Marcelino and they have only lost twice at home this season. Elsewhere, Valencia are at Real Mallorca as they battle to hold onto third and the final automatic Champions League place.

The 1-0 defeat to Barcelona was their first in the league in 2011 and Villarreal are now just a point behind in fourth.‘We are hurting after the Barcelona defeat but we competed with the best team in the world,’ said Valencia coach Emery. Villarreal closed to within one point of  Valencia and hope to stay on their heels with a win at Atletico Madrid on Saturday. Villarreal have been poor on their travels with just four away wins and Atletico Madrid will be full of motivation having moved to within three points of the top six. ‘It is a special game because there is a really good atmosphere at the (Vincente) Calderon,’ said Villarreal midfielder Borja Valero. European rivals Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla lock horns at San Mames on Sunday as the race for the European places hots up. Bilbao have lost their last four matches but are clinging to sixth place with Sevilla level on 38 points.‘When you can’t win you have to at least get a point,’ said Bilbao midfielder Carlos Gurpegui. ‘When you lose everything looks bad. Sunday is a huge game for us against a direct rival. We are in a good position in the league but we have to try and win against Sevilla.’Down at the bottom relegation rivals Hercules and Almeria face off on Saturday in a crucial six-pointer.‘Not scoring goals is certainly complicating things for us at the moment,’ said Hercules coach Esteban Vigo. Hercules have failed to score in their last three outings and are one point above the relegation zone, while Almeria prop up the 20-strong table.

Sevilla boosted their European hopes with a comfortable 3-0 home victory over 10-man Sporting Gijon on Tuesday to move level on points with sixth-placed Athletic Bilbao.Brazilian international forward Luis Fabiano opened the scoring from the penalty spot for his ninth league goal of the season with Diego Perotti and Alvaro Negredo also on target in a convincing home win.It was Sevilla's fourth game in nine hectic days but the hosts were aided by the first half sending off of Gijon midfielder Sebastian Eguren.Eguren fouled Fabiano to concede a penalty on 28 minutes and Sporting had to stomach a double punishment as the Uruguayan was given a red card.Fabiano made no mistake thumping a low penalty into the bottom left hand corner.

Minutes later Federico Fazio hit the crossbar with a downward header before Argentine Perotti made it 2-0 with a fine first time volley.Negredo scored a third in the second half as Sevilla climbed to seventh while Sporting hover one point above the relegation zone.Earlier on Tuesday Real Mallorca recorded their first away win at Espanyol in over a decade with a 2-1 comeback win at the Cornella-El Prat thanks to second half goals from Pierre Webo and Emilio Nsue.Fifth-placed Espanyol had taken an 18th minute lead through Alvaro Vazquez but Cameroon forward Webo headed an equaliser on 62 minutes and Nsue netted the winner eight minutes from time as the islanders won at Espanyol for the first time since 2000."After the break our goalkeeper practically didn't touch the ball and I think it was a deserved win," said Mallorca coach Michael Laudrup.

It was a major setback for Espanyol's European hopes and Athletic Bilbao, two points behind in sixth, can move above them with a win at Real Zaragoza on Wednesday.For Mallorca it was only their third away win of the season as they move four points off the top six.With just seven minutes gone Mallorca won a penalty with centre-back Jordi Amat clipping Webo in the box.Chori Castro stepped up but goalkeeper Carlos Kameni guessed the right way and got down low to palm away the spot-kick.A minute later Espanyol went down the other end and Jose Callejon crashed a shot against the post.The hosts got the breakthrough on 18 minutes with Mallorca getting their offside trap horribly wrong as Vazquez bent his run before keeping a cool head to slot home. Mallorca thought they had equalised on the half hour mark but Webo's header was harshly ruled out for offside.

Livewire Webo got the goal his performance deserved with a header to level the scores just after the hour mark.Winger Nsue then popped up with a late 82nd minute winner as Mallorca took the spoils.Malaga, second from bottom of the table, are coached by former Real boss Manuel Pellegrini who managed the club last season but a club record 96 points saw them finish runners-up to Barcelona and the Chilean was axed.

If Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo wanted to lay down markers ahead of the Barcelona v Real Madrid showdown at the Camp Nou on Monday, scoring hat-tricks in their final La Liga games before El Clasico was a typically sublime way to go about it.

Messi and Ronaldo are the two best players on the planet right now. They play weekly at a level most can only dream of, consistently overshadowing the abundance of world-class players who line up as their team-mates and opponents alike, reports BBC sports.

They are the last two winners of the Fifa World Footballer of the Year award and, despite being far from stereotypical centre-forwards in a positional sense, have each won a European Golden Shoe prize in the last three years.

They have scored 27 La Liga goals between them already this term - four more than the next top scorers in the division, Villarreal.

"What more can you say about Messi?" asked Barca colleague and Spain's World Cup-winning goalscorer Andres Iniesta in the aftermath of Messi's eighth treble for the Catalan club, in an 8-0 destruction of Almeria last weekend. "There are no words left. Let's hope he continues as he is."

After firing in three more goals in Real's 5-1 drubbing of Athletic Bilbao on the same day to stay one clear of his rival in the race for the Pichichi (Spain's top goalscorer), Ronaldo preferred to do his own talking: "I'm very happy for scoring three goals, but the important thing is that we continue being leaders. Barcelona's 8-0 win at Almeria doesn't tell me anything, Let's see if they score eight goals against us on Monday."

Monday is the day when Spain's top two meet for the first time this season, with Real Madrid a single point ahead of Barcelona in the standings.

It is a game customarily filled with intrigue and the pre-match phoney war will be taken to new levels this time around with Barca's arch-nemesis Jose Mourinho overseeing his first Clasico in charge of Real.

But when the talking stops and referee Eduaro Gonzalez blows his whistle at 2000 GMT, the focus will then centre around Messi and Ronaldo - the two proxy leaders of their teams, the men who are almost certain to have the greatest impact on the result and, longer term, the destiny of the Spanish title.

So much has been written about them both before, these two fascinatingly contrary figures: Messi, the shy, formerly-fragile boy from Argentina who packed his bags aged 13 and put himself in Barcelona's care; and Ronaldo, the perma-tanned Portuguese with the perfect physique and arrogance to match his £80m attributes.

Perhaps it is because they are so unique, as far removed from each other as they are from the mere mortals who seek to attain their greatness, that they are so open to comparison.

It is a point Noe Pamarot made to me when I asked the well-travelled Hercules defender to compare two players he has done battle with in La Liga in the past three months.

"The stats are amazing for both of them, it is incredible how many goals they score," said Pamarot, who also played against Ronaldo six times during a five-year spell in English football playing for Tottenham and Portsmouth.

"But they don't play anything like each other. They have both got the speed and the skills, but for me, Messi plays only for the team and that makes him a more dangerous opponent. He isn't always looking to score himself - if he isn't scoring, he is making an assist or having a big influence on the game anyway.

"They are comfortably the world's best right now. But Messi is very, very special. He is starting to prove weekly he is on a different level to everyone else. Can he be the greatest of all time? If he carries on like this for some more years, he can end up the same or even better than Diego Maradona and Pele. Why not?"

Pamarot's thoughts cast my mind back to a study of the pair conducted by the University of Coruna in Spain in April. It found that more than 80% of Barcelona's passing moves involved Messi, compared to 60% with Ronaldo and Madrid. When Messi gets the ball, his only thought is getting it into the back of his opponents' net; when Ronaldo picks it up, his is to put it there himself.

At a time when the fluid passing and movement style of Spain and Barcelona is fashionable and everyone wants to watch tiki-taka, Ronaldo's fearsome power and single-minded selfishness when he is within sight of goal is, to some, considered an inferior alternative, aesthetically-speaking anyway.

Another player who has been on the receiving end of the genius of Messi and Ronaldo is Ivory Coast midfielder Didier Zokora. The 29-year-old played against Ronaldo five times in his three-year stint with Spurs and was in the Sevilla team that suffered a 5-0 defeat at Barcelona a month ago in which Messi scored twice.

"The two of them are very good, for sure, but I prefer Messi," said Zokora. "Messi is perfect in the art of dribbling, while Ronaldo's shot is incredible. It is very difficult to stop them, they are very, very fast. Could one of them go on and be the greatest? It is difficult to say it, but maybe..."

For now, it is far easier to let the numbers do the talking. Courtesy of Infostrada Sports, here are the pair's breathtaking goal tallies in black and white:

Lionel Messi:

- 22 goals in 17 games for Barcelona this season
- 54 goals in 48 games for Barcelona in 2010
- Has scored in nine consecutive games for Barca
- In last five seasons (this season last), has scored: 17, 16, 38, 47, 22

Cristiano Ronaldo:

- 16 goals in 18 games for Real Madrid this season
- 38 goals in 42 games for Real Madrid in 2010
- Has scored 14 goals in 12 La Liga games this term
- In last five seasons (first three with Man Utd), has scored: 23, 42, 26, 33, 18

Chalk and cheese they may well be, but in the prolific way they find the net these men - who rarely play as out-and-out strikers - do at least have something in common. And according to the University of Coruna's study, that's not all. They also believe Messi and Ronaldo to be the two fastest players in the history of the game in terms of running with the ball.

So who do you pity more ahead of the game the whole footballing world will be watching, the Barcelona backline or the Real Madrid rearguard? I asked Pamarot who it is easier to play against, and he laughed down the telephone at me. "Haha. Seriously? OK, I want to play against both because they are the ultimate test of your abilities."

Plaudits from pundits and their peers have not been in short supply as the build-up to the most talked-about domestic fixture on Earth grows ever closer. "It is clear to me, Cristiano is number one," said Mourinho.

After watching Barca and Messi rip apart his Panathinaikoas side in Europe on Wednesday, midfielder Luis Garcia purred: "Messi is a phenomenon. One can only enjoy his play. Such a player only comes by once in several decades."

Even the Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has got involved in the debate, claiming he prefers the "dribbles" of Messi to the playing style of Ronaldo, though his opinion should be taken with the caveat that the 50-year-old is a lifelong Barcelona fan.

On Monday, these two footballing phenomena go head-to-head before an expectant audience of about 98,000 people in Barcelona and tens of millions more on television around the world. They will both feel they have an extra point to prove, too: in seven games, Messi has never scored or had an assist against a Mourinho team; similarly in five, Ronaldo has never found the net against Barca.

With the likes of Maradona, Pele and Johan Cruyff all reaching the peak of their powers in different eras, perhaps we should be grateful that for this generation, the stars will collide in front of our very eyes.