Lionel Messi mural created to match Cristiano Ronaldo's one in Kazan at the World Cup

Kazan artists worked through the night on Friday painting a mural of Argentina's Lionel Messi to match one of Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo on a building opposite, saving the blushes of the World Cup host city.

The three-storey portrait of Ronaldo was painted on a building behind the Ramada Hotel to welcome the five-times World Player of the Year when Portugal played in the capital of Tatarstan in the 2017 Confederations Cup.

To the embarrassment of city officials, it turned out that Argentina would be staying at the same hotel ahead of Saturday's World Cup last 16 clash against France with Messi potentially being able to see the Ronaldo mural from his room.

To avoid to appear to be taking sides in the eternal debate over which of the Spain-based forwards is the world's best player, the city commissioned the smaller side profile of Messi, also a five-times World Player of the Year.

Fans were already gathering outside the hotel hours before the arrival of Messi and his compatriots.

_______________

World Cup 2018 second round guide and predictions: France end Argentina's hopes

John McAuley's World Cup diary: Fans in Russia have been amazing - and so has Google Translate

Extra Time podcast: Messi finally comes through as World Cup knockout stages take shape

_______________

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

At a glance

Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

Lionel Messi mural created to match Cristiano Ronaldo's one in Kazan at the World Cup

Officials had worked last-minute to create it after worrying the Argentine forward would have thought Kazan was biased towards Ronaldo

NO OTHER LAND

At a glance