The two goalkeepers who have saved penalties against Cristiano Ronaldo AND Lionel Messi

Cristiano-Ronaldo-penalty-miss

Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi tend to be pretty prolific from the penalty spot, but even they have been guilty of squandering the odd spot kick every now and again.

For context, Ronaldo has a penalty conversion rate of 84.4% and Messi’s record is slightly inferior at 78%.

In recent years, both players have been sharp-shooters when it comes to converting from the spot. Ronaldo has scored 13 of his last 14 spot kicks and Messi hasn’t missed a penalty in almost two years now.

While both players tend to score more often than not, each of them have been guilty of missing some big penalties throughout their career.

We’ve taken a closer look at both of their records from the penalty spot and have managed to find the two goalkeepers who have saved penalties against Ronaldo and Messi.

Diego Alves

Believe it or not, Ronaldo has taken four penalties against Alves and he’s missed three of them. That’s a miserable conversation rate of just 25% against the former Valencia shot-stopper.

His first miss against Alves came during his debut season with Real Madrid, but thankfully Karim Benzema was able to spare his blushes by scoring from the rebound.

Ronaldo also failed to convert against Alves when facing him in 2015 and later down the line in 2017 too.

Not including penalty shootouts, Alves has been responsible for saving 10% of the penalties that Ronaldo has missed during his career which is a bit mental.

Along with getting the better of Ronaldo, Alves also managed to get one over on Messi back in 2012. During the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi final, Alves guessed the right way and denied the Barcelona star from the spot.

Ultimately, Messi had the final laugh as Barcelona went on to beat Valencia in the second leg before hammering Athletic Bilbao in the final.

Still, it’s quite the achievement from Alves that he’s managed to deny arguably the two greatest players of all time from scoring from the penalty spot.

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Jan Oblak

The only other goalkeeper to have denied both players from the penalty spot is Oblak.

He managed to save Messi’s penalty in the 2015 Copa del Rey quarter-final after smartly reading his run-up. However, Messi immediately managed to make amends on the night as the rebound kindly fell his way.

Prior to Euro 2024, Ronaldo boasted a flawless penalty record against the Atletico Madrid star. He scored the winning penalty in the 2016 Champions League final against Oblak and also converted penalties against him on two other occasions.

However, his luck seemed to be out when Portugal recently faced Slovenia at the Euros. Ronaldo had endured a pretty miserable 90 minutes for Portugal and things got even worse in extra time as he saw his spot-kick saved by Oblak.

Thankfully for Ronaldo, he was able to make amends in the penalty shootout after the game had ended goalless. CR7 set the tone by scoring first in the shootout and Portugal cruised to a 3-0 victory on penalties.

“Even the strongest people have their [bad] days. I was at rock bottom when the team needed me the most,” Ronaldo said after the game.

“Sadness at the start is joy at the end. That’s what football is. Moments, inexplicable moments. I feel sad and happy at the same time.

“But the important thing is to enjoy it. The team did an extraordinary job. We fought right to the end and I think we deserved it because we had more authority.”