They are two players who have performed on the finest of stages, in matches decided by the finest of margins.
But if Tuesday's World Cup semi-final between Lionel Messi's Argentina and Luka Modric's Croatia proves to be the final one of 27 such meetings between two decorators of the game, the outcome of it began to unfold thanks to rare misjudgement from one of them.
Argentina were clearly the better side between the two on show here. They have more players nearer the peak of their powers as opposed to those who are on the way down the hill having scaled to the top of it around the time of the last World Cup final in 2018.
In Messi and Modric the teams have their conductors, and the players that they look to in order to make everything else around them work.
But despite Croatia's advancement in the tournament it has always been apparent that Modric has the bigger task between the two of these greats. That task looked far too great here.
Right from the moment they kicked off in their first game against Morocco, Croatia have given the impression of a side desperate to cling onto games, ensuring that they don't get away from them and then in the knockout stages they can get dragged towards a penalty shootout - just as Croatia did in matches against the more vibrant, fitter Japan and Brazil.
Messi doesn't have that type of drag and desperation going on around him.
It is his job to dazzle and spark joy from the likes of Enzo Fernandez, Alexis Mac Allister and Julian Alvarez, and profit from the hard work put in by Rodrigo De Paul and Leandro Paredes, the type of hard work that Modric is having to do for his side.
Modric has, quite frankly, looked shattered for much of the tournament, just as he did when he was substituted against Japan and again here at the Lusail Stadium, where Argentina had raced into their unassailable lead and towards Sunday's final.
And as Modric went he would doubtless have been thinking about his failure to block Nicolas Otamendi's pass out from the back just after the half hour mark, with the ball escaping his mesmeric touch and instead finding its way to the brilliant Fernandez, who now had space and had Alvarez ahead of him.
There, in essence was the difference. Messi would end up with the chance to score from the penalty spot, which he emphatically did, thanks to the good work of two of his teammates. Modric didn't really have that all tournament.
Messi would score, Alvarez would add two more - the second thanks to brilliance from his captain in the assist - and Argentina would head into the final.
Modric heads home beaten and fairly battered, but still brilliant.
Messi's brilliance could yet yield the ultimate reward.
