Just imagine Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi going head-to-head with Diego Maradona and Pele. 

If you're now imagining an absolute riot as the world's best two players humiliate a pair of over 50s, we didn't quite mean it like that. 

Rather, we're picturing the hypothetical situation that all of the greatest players in football history all played together in their primes. It would be the football match to end all football matches.

Of course, it's the stuff of science-fiction, but that can't stop us from dreaming about it and - believe it or not - there are certain ways we can predict the result.

We're talking about FIFA 20. EA Sports' latest game in their flagship series includes some legendary former players who have been de-aged on the Ultimate Team game mode.

Dream football match

As a result, you can include the likes of a prime Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldinho while also selecting some contemporary stars such as N'Golo Kante and Kylian Mbappe.

So, bearing that in mind, what would happen if we compiled the best possible XI of 2019 and put them up against an assortment of FIFA legends? Exciting, right?

Well, we don't need to bother because YouTuber 'Rich Leigh' has conducted that very experiment for us and the fascinating game that transpired has been watched by 225,000 people.

Icons XI defeat World XI

The 'World XI' was finalised as: Jan Oblak, Jordi Alba, Virgil van Dijk, Sergio Ramos, Joshua Kimmich, Kante, Luka Modric, Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Messi and Ronaldo.

And the 'Icons XI' was settled at: Lev Yashin, Roberto Carlos, Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Carlos Alberto, Patrick Vieira, Lothar Matthaus, Diego Maradona, Zidane, Pele and Ronaldo Nazario.

You know the two teams are astonishing when players like Neymar, Mohamed Salah, Bobby Moore and Johan Cruyff are warming the benches.

But without further ado, check out what happens when the two dream teams lock horns:

Icons XI 2-1 World XI

A round of applause for the winning Icons XI.

In fairness, you would expect the team of legends to emerge victorious, but they didn't have it easy and Ronaldo actually gave the Liverpool-clad contemporaries a 66th-minute lead.

And it wasn't until the final 10 minutes that substitute Ruud Gullit levelled the scores with a header from Roberto Carlos' cross.

Then, in the final seconds of stoppage time, Pele snatched the victory with another header and we like to imagine that he mocked Messi all over again when he returned to the halfway line. 

Using a league format

But the experiment wasn't finished there. Just in case the one-off game was a fluke, the YouTuber simulated an entire Premier League season with both teams competing.

It was victory for Icons XI as they won the title with 93 points, bizarrely losing more games than Liverpool did last year, while the World XI unsurprisingly bagged second place.