IT will be a gladiatorial battle on Friday.

Between Cristisano Ronaldo, the world’s most expensive footballer, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the game’s most thrilling, when Portugal face Sweden in the first-leg of their 2014 World Cup playoff.

It’s a shame though that one of them will be out of football’s showpiece next year in Brazil.

The two-legged playoff will see the Portuguese welcome the Swedes to Lisbon before traveling to Stockholm for the Tuesday’s return leg of what is expected to be a nerve-shredding tie.

The highlight of that clash, though, would be the battle between Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic — both in devastating form for their clubs and both in contention for this year’s Ballon d’Or.

Ronaldo has scored 24 goals in 17 games for Real Madrid this season while Ibrahimovic has netted 14 in 15 appearances for Paris St Germain.

And they come into the clash scoring hat-tricks on the weekend.

Ronaldo’s treble came against Real Sociedad in Real’s 5-1 La Liga victory which kept them third in the standings while Ibrahimovic scored three against Nice in a 3-1 win which saw PSG open up a four-point lead atop Ligue 1.

“Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic are two global stars who are playing at the top of their game, so it’s natural there’s a lot of talk about them,” Portugal winger Silvestre Varela told PortuGOAL.net.

“We realise we are not going to face Ibrahimovic alone, they are a very strong side. We just have to focus on our game and make sure we win.”

Ronaldo is the best player in the world according to many, and the World Cup would be the perfect stage for the Real star, particularly as he is in the best form of his life, scoring goals left, right and centre.

Were it not for Lionel Messi, he would be the undisputed player of his generation.

And with the Argentine ruled out for the rest of the year with a leg injury, Ronaldo could well start next year by ending Messi’s four-year stranglehold on the Ballon d’Or.

But Ibrahimovic too is in contention for FIFA’s Player of the Year award.

“For me, Ibrahimovic is the best striker in the world,” Ronaldo’s Portugal team-mate Ricardo Costa told Spanish news agency EFE. “He’s very physical and great technically. Zlatan is the complete player — so versatile.”

Ibrahimovic is slowly shedding his ‘bad boy’ tag and he’s shown great consistency for PSG over the last couple of seasons.

His talent, though, was never in question.

Ibrahimovic is capable of doing the extraordinary, and some of the goals he has conjured up have been outrageous in their conception and mind-boggling in their execution.

His fourth goal against England in a 4-2 friendly win for Sweden last November, when he netted with a bicycle kick from 30 yards, is a contender for this year’s FIFA award for the best goal.

And the 32-year-old believes he deserves to be at the World Cup — although that would come at Ronaldo’s expense.

“We’re in the play-offs and we’ve done very well so far,” he told Italian sports publication La Gazzetta Dello Sport on Tuesday.

“With the individuals — Cristiano, of course, Portugal are clearly the favourites. But we came second in a group with Germany, which I think is the best team in Europe, whereas they came second in a group they were supposed to win, so I think we deserve to go to Brazil more.”

Sweden finished second place in the qualifying Group ‘C’ while Portugal missed out on automatic qualification by finishing a point behind Group ‘F’ winners Russia.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, has been on mean scoring streak since FIFA president Sepp Blatter called him more of a show-boater than Messi.

Fast, technically brilliant and strong in the air, he is a more complete player than Messi as well as being devastatingly effective.

“Coaching Ronaldo was the highlight of my career,” former Real manager Jose Mourinho, who also coached Ibrahimovic at Inter Milan, told France Football about his compatriot, looking ahead to the playoff on Wednesday. “He’s the most professional player I’ve ever met.”

Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger too has seen both players at close quarters.

Ibrahimovic was famously offered a trial at Arsenal which he rejected while Ronaldo was a constant nemesis for the London club during his time at Manchester United.

“Portugal are the stronger side,” Wenger wrote in his column for Eurosport on Wednesday. “But it’s true that a World Cup without Ibrahimovic or Ronaldo will have something missing.”

Only if there could be room for both!