Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi each played their final game of 2015 for their respective clubs, pulling off big victories.

Ronaldo's game against Real Sociedad is what you would call "interesting." The superstar has not had the best of seasons, but one thing he has not struggled with is penalty kick-taking. He had two chances to add to his stats from the penalty spot. He missed the first attempt, skying the ball in a manner uncharacteristic of the superstar.

He got everything he needed on the second penalty for Madrid, giving the team a 1-0 lead.

That said, Ronaldo's performance to that point was uninterested at best; any cynic would have called it yet another bad showing from the superstar -- until the second half came around.

Ronaldo looked hungry, something that has not been seen in a long time, or at least this season. He scored a wondergoal, one-timing a cross with his back to goal. It was a moment of brilliance that has often been lacking from the three-time Ballon d'Or winner and a meaningful one at that. Ronaldo has often gone missing in key moments for Madrid, but on this night he scored the much-needed icebreaker and then the winner.

He was also a major contributor on the insurance tally, collecting the ball in the midfield and then doing the unselfish thing of dishing it off to Gareth Bale for the cross that would eventually lead to the goal. With so much open space, it would have been unsurprising to see Ronaldo try and run away on his own, but he instead opted for the intelligent play.

Meanwhile, Messi managed a nice goal to make it 2-0, but hit the post a few times and even got knocked in the head by the Real Betis goalie. It was not a vintage performance from the superstar, but there might be some concern over how he feels after taking the knock on his head.

Season Stats

Ronaldo has now scored 25 goals and seven assists in 23 matches for Real Madrid this season; he has 14 goals and four assists in the Spanish League and is currently on pace for 31 goals in the league.

More importantly, his consistency has gone up dramatically over the last few weeks with 12 goals in his last seven games; he has scored at least one tally in six of those seven matches and has two straight braces in La Liga. Prior to this run he had 13 goals in 16 matches, but only scored in six of those games. More to the point, eight of the 13 goals came in two games, meaning that in an early 16-game stretch, Ronaldo scored only five goals in 14 other games.

Messi has 13 goals and five assists in 18 goals this season; six goals and four assists are in La Liga, leaving Messi far behind from the Pichichi race. He is currently on pace to score an underwhelming 18 goals and 12 assists; the last time Messi finished with less than 20 goals in La Liga was back in 2007-08. That said, Messi has not gone more than two games all year with either a goal or an assist.

Calendar Year Stats

Ronaldo finished the year with 57 goals in 57 matches and 54 goals in 52 games for his club. This was the lowest goal tally in a calendar year for Ronaldo since 2010 when he put away 48 goals all year round. This is also the first year since 2010 that Ronaldo has not reached 60 goals in a calendar year.

Messi finishes the year with 52 goals and 26 assists in 61 games; that is the second lowest total for the superstar in the last six years. Back in 2013, he scored 45 goals.

Winner:

Ronaldo scored a key goal for his team and easily takes the cake in this edition.

Ronaldo leads 6-4.