The Lionel Messi vs. Cristiano Ronaldo debate will hit the international stage when Portugal and Argentina meet in London Tuesday for a friendly match.

There is actually nothing at stake for either country in this game, meaning that the main point of contention will be the battle between the two soccer geniuses.

Many expected an earlier reunion between Messi and Ronaldo this past summer at the World Cup as both teams had the potential to meet in the quarterfinals. While Argentina lived up to its part of the deal, Portugal faltered at the first hurdle and the hotly-anticipated match-up never materialized.

So fans will have to settle for this, the first meeting between the two nations since 2011, when Argentina won, 2-1, thanks to a Messi winner from the penalty spot.

Ronaldo is undoubtedly the top player in the world on current form for Real Madrid. And it seems that his play is translating to his international form, as well. The superstar recently scored a huge goal in Portugal's Euro qualifier against Armenia, his second straight winner for his nation. Meanwhile, Messi scored a goal in a friendly game against Croatia.

Ronaldo has scored 52 goals for Portugal in 117 matches while Messi has 45 strikes in 96 games for his nation. Many would point to Messi's stats clearly showing him as having a superior strike rate to Ronaldo, but that argument gets easily turned on its head when one factors in when those goals are being scored. Ronaldo has 41 of his goals in 79 competitive matches while only 21 of Messi's have come in 59 competitive games. Ronaldo has only 11 goals in 38 friendlies while Messi has 24 in 37 friendlies. While overall, Messi is scoring at a rate of 0.468 per match and Ronaldo is only scoring at a rate of 0.444 per game, the Portuguese star has a rate of 0.519 goals per competitive game while the Argentine has only produced 0.356 goals per competitive match for his country. This could easily change, however, as Ronaldo is also three years Messi's senior, but the Real Madrid man's performance in big games for his country cannot be questioned as the statistics show.

Messi had the superior World Cup in 2014, but he only scored in the group stage. Once the tournament reached ever-greater heights, Messi faded into the background. His free kick fiasco at the end of the World Cup final was a perfect example of how his tournament went: when given a chance to shine, he failed. He won the Golden Ball, but most pundits noted that it was highly undeserved.

Ronaldo's World Cup was just as woeful, as he only scored one goal. However, he played the entire tournament injured and few would make a claim that Portugal had substantial supporting characters to lift the team in its leaders' absence. Messi did have a strong supporting cast that was ultimately led to the final by Javier Mascherano.

Interestingly, neither nation has won a major international trophy since Messi or Ronaldo has been a member of the team. Both players were involved in final matches (Portugal lost 1-0 in the Euro 2004 final against Greece while Messi has imploded in a Copa America final and World Cup final), but neither has won. Both will get their chances soon, however.

Messi and Argentina will play in 2015 in the Copa America while Ronaldo will look to leave his mark in France 2016.

As far as this game goes, the two players will look to pad their international stats.

Predictions

Argentina is still a better team on paper, but Ronaldo will look to impress in London. Look for him to get at least one goal, but expect Messi to do the same as Argentina wins 2-1.

Schedule, Start Time, How to Watch

Tuesday Nov. 18 at 2:45 p.m. EST. Watch it on beIN Sports USA. Live streaming of the game can be seen here.