Kevin De Bruyne and Toni Kroos dropped Champions League masterclasses this week.

Real Madrid's commander in chief had Liverpool on puppet strings during their quarter-final victory, producing a stunning assist for Vinicius Junior and forcing an error from Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Meanwhile, Manchester City had their star man to thank for a nerve-racking win over Borussia Dortmund with a goal and pre-assist of an equally incredible nature.

Kroos and De Bruyne shine

As such, both players are rightfully hoovering up praise across social media and I think it's pretty uncontroversial to suggest that they are the two best midfielders in the world right now.

Ok, ok, I can hear people calling the names of Joshua Kimmich, Luka Modric and even Bruno Fernandes already, but De Bruyne and Kroos are certainties in the top five at the very, very least.

And although both players express their midfield genius in very different ways, we couldn't help pondering who the top dog out of the City and Real stars truly is right now.

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Comparing the superstar midfielders

An incredibly tough task, I'm sure you'll agree, so we figured that a tongue-in-cheek approach would probably serve it best and we turned to FIFA 21 in our quest to separate the two superstars.

Using their base cards on Ultimate Team from EA Sports' latest release, we hopped on Futhead.com to see who was given the superior rating for each of the 29 in-game statistics.

In other words, we could view who was the better player overall in the eyes of one of the biggest numerical rankings of football players in the world - and you can check out the final results here:

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In Game: Physical

Acceleration: Kevin De Bruyne (77)

Agility: Kevin De Bruyne (78)

Balance: Kevin De Bruyne (76)

Jumping: Kevin De Bruyne (63)

Reactions: Kevin De Bruyne (91)

Sprint speed: Kevin De Bruyne (76)

Stamina: Kevin De Bruyne (89)

Strength: Kevin De Bruyne (74)

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In Game: Skill

Ball control: Kevin De Bruyne (92)

Crossing: Kevin De Bruyne (94)

Curve: Toni Kroos (86)

Dribbling: Kevin De Bruyne (88)

Finishing: Kevin De Bruyne (82)

Free kick: Toni Kroos (84)

Heading: Toni Kroos (58)

Long passing: Toni Kroos and Kevin De Bruyne (93)

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Long shots: Kevin De Bruyne (91)

Defensive awareness: Toni Kroos (72)

Penalties: Kevin De Bruyne (82)

Short passing: Kevin De Bruyne (94)

Shot power: Kevin De Bruyne (91)

Sliding tackle: Toni Kroos (60)

Standing tackle: Toni Kroos (73)

Volleys: Toni Kroos and Kevin De Bruyne (82)

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In Game: Mental

Aggression: Kevin De Bruyne (76)

Interceptions: Toni Kroos (79)

Positioning: Kevin De Bruyne (88)

Vision: Kevin De Bruyne (94)

Composure: Kevin De Bruyne (91)

Final score: Kevin De Bruyne 21-8 Toni Kroos

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Clear victory for De Bruyne

So, there you have it, De Bruyne is very much the top dog when it comes to the gurus at EA Sports, essentially giving him the upper hand in every broad category aside from defending.

And with some of Kroos' few wins bewilderingly coming in free-kick taking, there's good reason to think that De Bruyne might well pull out an even more convincing win when FIFA 22 is released.

However, it would be silly to read too much into what is ultimately a fun little comparison because the fact of the matter is that both players are two of the best in the business.

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And even if you really did take FIFA 21's data as gospel, then it's hardly a criticism of Kroos because I'm pretty sure being called worse than De Bruyne is the least insulting insult of all time.