Today marked the begining of the end for the group stage. Groups A and B played their final games, which is always a cause for drama because most of these games will decide who advances to the Round of 16. There was an enormous amount of people claiming that the refs and the use of VAR was very one-sided in almost every match, which goes to show how big these games were today.
Group B went batshit crazy on Monday, but when the dust settled and the VAR screen had been flicked off, nothing had changed over the course of 90 overly dramatic minutes in Russia: Spain finish top and will play Russia, Portugal finish runners-up and take on Uruguay. One major talking point is that the European champions could’ve been preparing for that game without Cristiano Ronaldo, who was given a VAR-inspired yellow card for an off-the-ball elbow.
Believe it or not, Cristiano Ronaldo is flesh and bone, just like the rest of us.
Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty against Iran and is momentarily trailing behind Harry Kane in the race to win the Golden Boot.
You have to give all the credit to Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand for denying the shot from Ronaldo, one of the world’s most efficient penalty takers.
A goal in football is always followed by a wild celebration. These celebrations are often a player’s signature, and they include pointing to the sky and thanking the footballing gods, the always cool knee slide or the epic running explosion while screaming in unison with the fans. The World Cup goal celebrations at the 2018 tournament have been no different.
This year’s World Cup provides an opportunity for the planet to see a variety of signature celebrations. Below are some of the best World Cup goal celebrations that we’ve seen so far.
Today's games were expected to be one-sided affairs, but that wasn't the case. Heavyweights Portugal, Uruguay and Spain all struggled to hold on to 1-0 leads to get the vital three points. Not the most exciting day of the World Cup so far, but Twitter was still making the day and games enjoyable with some witty banter.
“Does Messi do that?” Alexi Lalas sneered while looking at the camera during Fox’s halftime coverage of Portugal vs. Morocco. The act in question was a three-yard diving header off a corner from Ronaldo to give Portugal an early lead. (He doesn't; he usely takes the corners or stands at the edge of the box because he's just pushing 5-7.)
But does Messi do this?
Move over Ferenc Puskas, CR7 is No. 2 now. With the Cristiano Ronaldo goal vs Morocco, a powerful header off a corner kick four minutes into the match on Wednesday, the Portuguese star became the second all-time leading goal scorer in the history of men's international soccer.
Ronaldo and Puskas were tied with 84 goals apiece after the former’s hat trick against Spain on Friday. But Ronaldo didn’t wait long on Wednesday against Morocco to break that tie.
With the first round of matches completed at the World Cup, some players have already stood out on their teams. Whether it be scoring crucial goals to gift their team a victory or keeping the goals out at the other end of the pitch, these players were the best World Cup players of the first round. So, without further ado, here is our starting lineup of the best performers of Round 1 at the World Cup. We’ve gone with a 4-4-2 formation to keep it nice and simple as well.