BLUES captain John Terry reportedly claims teammate Edin Hazard is now in the same class as world’s two best players of the past seven years Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Hazard scored a goal and assisted the second in their 2-1 win at home to Stoke over the weekend and he has been the Blues best player by far this term.

He is also among the top contenders for this season’s player of the year award. But to compare him with the two players who have held the world spell-bound in the last seven years sounds like an inordinate exaggeration. And their individual stats either this season or overall would not do the prodigiously talented Belgian any favour.

His 17 goals and nine assists from 42 matches in all competitions are a far cry from CR7’s 48 goals and Messi’s 45 from about the same number of games in all competitions. Worse for Hazard is that he plays in the same position as Ronaldo.

Maybe in future Chelsea’s No-10 could reach or at least come close to the dizzying heights of Messi and CR7 – at 23, the Belgian has age on his side. But for now I think Terry’s claim is over-the-top and possibly an embarrassing comparison. Or what do you think guys, is Hazard now at the same level with Messi and CR7?

RONALDO VENTS SPLEEN ON GRANADA!

CR7 and Real Madrid visited their anger and the frustrations of El Clasico 2-1 defeat to Barcelona on little Granada whom they pulverised 9-1! Ronaldo helped himself to five goals while Kareem Benzema notched a brace after a Gareth Bale opener on 25 minutes. An own goal by Mainz on 83 minutes and a 74^th minute consolation by Ibanez Castro rounded up the scoreline.

La Liga’s record win was set by Athletic Bilbao who thrashed Barcelona 12-1 on 8 February, 1931; but nothing couldn’t detract from a ruthless Real’s 9-1 destruction of the bottom team.

Interestingly, my friends and I had predicted CR7 might turn this to a harvest of goals on our weekly TV show the Big League Soccer on StarTimes TV, Channel 123, showing every Friday 8pm with a repeat on Saturday 8am. And as if he had watched the programme, Ronaldo fired FIVE goals to at least temporarily usurp rival Lionel Messi at the summit of La Liga scorers chat with 36 goals to the latter’s 32.

And talking about CR7’s individual record: that was the first time he would score five goals for Real Madrid, although he has scored four before (three times, including earlier this season against Elche).

His eight-minute hat-trick (his fifth this season, 24th in La Liga and 28th in all competitions) was the quickest of his Real career, and bettered by David Villa who scored a 5-minute treble for Valencia against Athletic Bilbao on 23 April, 2006. CR7 is now four goals ahead of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi in La Liga scoring charts with 36. Real’s seven goals in 31 minutes is also an incredible feat.

Apart from the Real-Granada mismatch, we also correctly predicted the victories of Bayern Munich away to Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal at home to Liverpool and Roma’s victory over Napoli. To say the truth, if you like predicting match results and or enjoy thorough football previews, then Big League Soccer is the programme to watch.

At this juncture, I want to thoroughly apologise for our no-show on the newsstands last week. We were hampered by a couple of issues which have since been resolved. Enjoy your Easter break. See you next week insha-Allah. Peace.