Barcelona legend Hristo Stoichkov is adamant Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo is not at the level of Lionel Messi.

Stoichkov believes Ronaldo is going through a "bad moment".

"You cannot doubt the quality of either player," he said of Messi and Ronaldo. "Messi is where he should be and Cristiano is in a difficult moment, but all players go through rough patches. I was whistled as well in my time. It's up to the coach to make decisions... to speak to the player. Maybe the obsession with Messi is affecting him.

"I'm not inside his head. Messi is a motivation for his teammates and if Ronaldo doesn't score it affects his teammates. I was applauded and I was whistled. At times like that you have to display your personality; 99 percent of players cannot answer the question 'why am I being booed.'

"The difference between the two is that Messi is at the level of Pelé, Maradona and Cruyff and what annoys Cristiano is that he is only compared to Messi."