Ferguson: take chance to join greats I Case for defence must come first I Winners can expect £100m windfall I Defining night for Messi and Ronaldo I O'Shea ready to tale place against best I Guardiola happy to follow Shankly's lead I Pique hopes to help United's downfall I Graphic: Barcelona v United likely line-ups

The respective merits of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were drawing opinions from all sorts of luminaries here yesterday. Sir Alex Ferguson chose to duck the issue, heaping praise on both — “they are two fantastic footballers with courage to attack defenders all the time, no matter how many times they are knocked down” — but his team selection tonight is likely to say something bold about Ronaldo’s extraordinary versatility.

The Portuguese is expected to play as a lone centre forward backed up by a five-man midfield and while it is not the first time he will have been used that way — he did it, to great effect, against Arsenal in the semi-final, second leg — it is a tribute to his scope as a footballer if he is preferred there to Carlos Tévez or Dimitar Berbatov.

He arrived in Manchester as a winger. but has grown, both in physical and creative stature, into the most multifaceted striker in the world. Others such as Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho, in his prime, have been able to play right across the attacking line, but it is hard to think of any recent forward who has ticked all the boxes of speed, balance, dead-ball prowess, aerial power and two strong feet.

The most obvious failing is a reluctance to track back — Ronaldo prefers to throw his arms in the air — which is why Wayne Rooney is likely to be charged with patrolling the flanks to help out his full backs tonight.

Many of us may find more aesthetic pleasure in the flow of Messi’s running than Ronaldo’s stop-start turns, but it is effectiveness that will matter in a final, and the experts seem to be leaning towards the United player when it comes to predicting supremacy.

From Fabio Capello, the England manager: “This can be the match that decides the Ballon d’Or 2009 [won by Ronaldo last year with Messi second].

“Messi’s form has been explosive over three quarters of the season, when he has undoubtedly been the best player in the world. But in the last three months Ronaldo has become Ronaldo again, and he is now perhaps fitter than Messi.”

And from Marcel Desailly, the World Cup-winning France defender: “It is a bit more difficult to defend against Ronaldo because he is less predictable. Messi uses his team-mate to speed his game, with one-twos. So you put pressure on the opponents and he loses one aspect of his ability.”

There are those who still insist that this evening’s final will be Ronaldo’s last in a United shirt. That the jersey in question will be all white is, as a journalist pointed out, surely a precursor to him pulling on that colour for Real Madrid.

If it was an attempt to trip up Ronaldo, let us just say that Barcelona will have to do better than his interrogator managed yesterday.

Diamond sparkling from one ear, Ronaldo swatted away discussion about the possibility of a move to Spain. “I like the Spanish league but I feel good in England and in the Premier League, which I believe right now is the strongest,” he said.

United are confident that Ronaldo is their player beyond the summer and when Ferguson spoke of a glorious future for this team, he was definitely including his Portuguese star in it. Ronaldo, who says that he has been practising penalties after last year’s miss against Chelsea in the shoot-out, insisted that individual accolades did not matter. “Right now I couldn’t care about that, what I want more is to win the Champions League,” he said. “I try to help my team 100 per cent, score a goal and win the game. That’s it.”