It was inevitable.

With two of the best players in the world chasing the record, it was a question of who and not when. In end it was Barcelona's Lionel Messi, who once against pipped Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo.

Having already tied Raul’s record in the previous round, the Argentine scored a hat-trick in Barca’s 4-0 drubbing of Cypriots APOEL Nicosia on Tuesday night to take sole possession of the Champions League scoring record.

Messi moved on to 74 goals in Europe’s premier club competition with his Real Madrid rival Ronaldo on 70 before his side were to face FC Basel on Wednesday night.

With the two players running on full steam, Raul’s record would be a distant mark by the time the Champions League final is played in Berlin on June 6 next year or by the time the duo end their careers.

Messi’s hat-trick came three days after he’d broken La Liga’s goal record by netting his 253rd goal in the Spanish top-flight, breaking Telmo Zarra’s record in the process.

That prompted Real – Barca’s fierce arch-rivals – to claim Ronaldo is La Liga’s best-ever goal-scorer, claiming the Portuguese’s goals per game average is better than Zarra or Messi.

An infographic on Real Madrid TV showed Ronaldo’s 181 goals had come in 172 appearances, at an average of 1.12 – far better than Zarra’s (0.91 – 251 goals in 289 appearances) and Messi’s (0.87 – 253 in 289).

“Both Messi and Ronaldo are two great players in the modern era,” Raul said in an interview in 2012, when his record was still intact.

“Both have different styles and characteristics. It’s always difficult to do a comparison between any two great players.”

Raul too wasn’t anything short of great. He was the best in the business and one of Europe’s most feared strikers during his hey-day.

The 37-year old Spaniard joined North American Soccer League (NASL) side New York Cosmos last month after ending a two-year spell at Qatari side Al Sadd.

The last of his Champions League goals came in a two-year stint at Bundesliga side Schalke 04 but the club where he made his mark is where Ronaldo rules the roost nowadays.

Joining Real’s youth team following a decision then by city rivals’ Atletico Madrid president Jesus Gil to wind up the youth team, Raul made his first-team debut during the 1994-95 season, helping the Merengues win La Liga with nine goals in the season.

The very next season, as an 18-year-old, he made his Champions League debut.

And he opened his account in the competition in style, scoring a hat-trick against Hungarians Ferencvaros at the Santiago Bernabeu.

A legend had taken his first steps, even though his six goals in that campaign failed to inspire Real to glory as they fell to eventual winners Juventus in the quarter-finals.

It was two years later that Raul picked up his first Champions League medal – beating Juve in the final at the Amsterdam Arena.

He scored just two goals during that campaign and with a return of three the next season, failed to help his side to a successful defence of their title.

A year later, though, Raul was a Champions League winner for a second time, and it was in that season he that truly made a mark in the competition.

Scoring 10 times, including a goal in the final against Valencia, the highlight of Raul’s almost infinite instinct as a striker came against Manchester United in the quarter-finals.

An eighteen-yard tap-in against the then-reigning champions was followed by a pure poacher’s goal in a 3-2 second-leg win at Old Trafford.

Unlike Ronaldo or Messi, he was a more conventional striker – one that relied on positioning and predatory instinct to score rather than explosive power or mythical dribbling.

That title, Real’s eighth, heralded the club’s ‘galactico’ era. In came Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane and in 2002, Real won their ninth European Cup.

He became the first player to score in two Champions League finals when he netted the opener against Bayer Leverkusen at Hampden Park with Zidane’s stunning volley sealing victory for Real; Raul having earlier scored another spectacular goal for Vicente Del Bosque’s side in their semi-final win over Barca.

Real had a longer wait for their much-obsessed tenth European Cup title –The Decima – despite Raul’s best efforts with Ronaldo and company finally delivering it last season.

“Ronaldo is the best player the club has signed in the last few years,” Raul said before the Santiago Bernabeu Trophy match between Al Sadd and Real in August 2013.

Raul’s 50th Champions League goal came against Olympiakos in 2005 and he netted his 66th goal in the competition for Real against AC Milan in 2009.

He added another five with Schalke – the last of those coming in a quarter-final defeat to Inter Milan in 2011.

While Messi and Ronaldo seem to score goals for fun, Raul used to rattle the back of the net when goals were harder to come by with defenders like Paolo Maldini, Fabio Cannavaro, Lilian Thuram, Alessandro Nesta, Lucio and Jaap Stam.

Raul’s international career saw him score 44 goals in 102 appearances – a record that was broken by compatriot David Villa – and although he didn’t enjoy much success with Spain as the team of recent past has, he is a true Champions League legend.

Raul remains a symbol of Real and one of the purest strikers the game has seen.

He will now hope to translate his impact on European football on the American game.