Lionel Messi scored one of the greatest free-kicks of his career against Liverpool on Wednesday night.

Barcelona faced their toughest challenge in the Champions League this season with the visit of Jurgen Klopp's men and many fancied the Reds to take the victory in Catalonia.

However, there wasn't even an away goal for the English side as Barcelona planted one foot in the final, securing a 3-0 win at Camp Nou.

The opening goal came courtesy of Luis Suarez - who wildly celebrated just as promised - before two goals from the Blaugrana's star man put the game to bed.

His opening strike came in rather fortuitous fashion and won't be featuring in any compilation videos, but Messi's second will go down as one of the Champions League's greatest.

Messi's sensational free-kick

Even by his remarkable free-kick standards in recent seasons, it looked to be out of range for the Argentine and especially with Alisson Becker stood between the sticks.

However, calling upon incredible curve and power, Messi managed to propel the ball into the top left corner and send over 90,000 home fans into delirium.

It will probably be remembered as Messi's best set-piece goal of the season and his Liverpool strike elevated him to an incredible tally of eight free-kick goals in 2018-19.

Ronaldo vs Messi free-kicks

That puts him head and shoulders above some of the best takers in Europe, but how does that look when we compare him to his eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo?

It's been well publicised that Ronaldo has struggled from free-kicks recently and the Portuguese is still waiting to convert one for Juventus.

Perhaps the most staggering comparison, though, is when you consider Messi has scored four free-kicks for his club in 2019 alone.

Over what period has Ronaldo done the same? 960 days.

Ronaldo scored his last club free-kick all the way back in December 2017 and if we trace back the next three, we get to September 14, 2016, and his direct free-kick against Sporting Lisbon.

Take a look at their records down below: 

Messi's record

Ronaldo's record

In other words, at their current scoring rates, it takes Ronaldo over 800 games more to convert four free free-kicks than his rival in the GOAT (greatest of all-time) debate.

What about if we include international free-kicks, though? That certainly makes things 'closer' because we can now factor in Ronaldo's goal against Spain at the World Cup.

Throw in another free-kick goal against Hungary in 2017 and the gap narrows but only to 768 days, which is still over two years in length. 

What makes the division all the more intriguing is that Ronaldo still has more career free-kick goals, but his accuracy has dramatically declined in recent years.

Couple that with an exponential improvement from Messi and no matter where you stand on the GOAT discussion, it seems the Barcelona star is number one from a dead ball.

Who do you think is the greatest free-kick taker in history? Have your say in the comments section below.