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By Graham Ruthven (@grahamruthven)

Somewhere deep inside the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday evening Florentino Perez will find a quiet room, turn on the television and settle in for the Euro 2016 semi-final in Lyon, Portugal versus Wales. Or rather, as he will see it, Cristiano Ronaldo versus Gareth Bale. Real Madrid’s two biggest assets will face each other for a place in the final.

With that individual duel, countless compelling plotlines have been produced. Profound meaning will be drawn from the outcome and the way in which Wednesday’s match unfolds between the most expensive player of all time and the second most expensive player of all time. Ordinarily on the same side, Ronaldo and Bale will do battle against each other.

Billing this semi-final clash as nothing more than a tussle between two players might be somewhat unfair to both Portugal and Wales, as Bale himself points out. "It's not about two players,” he said ahead of the game. “We know and everybody knows that it's about two nations in the semi-final - 11 men against 11.

"[Ronaldo] is a fantastic player, everyone knows what he can do. But we don't worry about the opposition. We just do what we do. It's about how we perform as a team, and as a team we can shut out a lot of threats. The star in our team is all of us. We are all together, we all work as one, running for each other, tackling for each other. We get on like brothers and we're having fun, enjoying the occasion, with no fear. It's working so far.”

But even Bale must recognise, and embrace, the narrative surrounding the semi-final in Lyon. Ronaldo and Bale have long been compared with one another, even before the Welshman made the world record move to Real Madrid three years ago. This match, however, pits the duo directly against each other. Never before have such comparisons been so easy to contrast.

Physically and stylistically, Bale and Ronaldo are similar. They’re both wingers have turned centre-forwards in recent years, boasting incredible strength, power and pace. They’re both among the game’s best headers of the ball and both fancy their chances from a set piece. They’re similarly ambitious too.

But Ronaldo and Bale are one of the same, yet nothing alike. Their personas for their respective national teams are very different, something that could become apparent in Lyon on Wednesday. While Ronaldo’s leadership is the result of sheer personal drive, Bale feels a responsibility to the rest of his team. When Ronaldo finds the net he celebrates with a display of peacocking prowess. When Bale scores he runs to his manager and team-mates on the sidelines.

What would a Bale victory over Ronaldo say about the career trajectory of the two players? One is seen on the way up, the other on the way down. A Wales win over Portugal would only underline that notion, with Bale now considered one of the game’s very best. 

Then there’s the impact a win for Bale could have on the dynamic between the two players at Real Madrid. President Perez is a staunch believer in the Welshman, defending the winger even in the face of the most intense criticism from the notoriously hard to please Madrid press. Could a victory for Wales over Portugal signal a shift in dynamic at club level too? Would Real Madrid be Bale’s, not Ronaldo’s, club?

It’s almost too much narrative to take in all at once. Maybe if the scores are level on Wednesday, with the two sides inseparable, the two sets of players will step aside, allowing Ronaldo and Bale to go at each other, one to one. That’s what everyone will be watching for. The ticket might say Wales versus Portugal, but viewers will be drawn by the personal tussle between both teams’ best players.