Ronaldo steals the headlines as Spain and Portugal battle for an entertaining draw
The last game of Friday's football was the most anticipated match since the World Cup draw was made back in December. 2010 World Cup winners and 2 times European Champions Spain taking on 2016 European Champions Portugal. The game has been seen as arguably the best game and pre-match there was a feeling of if the World Cup needed a wake-up call this is the match to wake it up and boy, did it wake the tournament up. The game was taking place in the Fischt Stadium in Sochi, the same stadium that did the Opening, closing and medal ceremonies in the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Before the World Cup, there was controversy in the Spain team as their former head coach became the new Real Madrid Manager. In response, the Spanish Federation sacked the coach and installed their former sporting director as the coach with immediate effect. Meanwhile, in the Portugal camp, there was only one question. Could Cristiano Ronaldo finally end his World Cup woes? In his previous 3 world cups, he had scored only 3 goals in the whole length of the tournament Portugal have played in. However, before the game, his PR team announced that he would accept a two-year prison term and pay a hefty fine for tax evasion.
3 minutes into the game, Portugal got a penalty off a foul done to Ronaldo and became the first major incident to be reviewed by VAR. Still, it got confirmed as a penalty after a camera angle showed meaningful contact. Ronaldo stepped up and put the penalty into the back of the net sending the Spanish keeper David De Gea the wrong way. That was important as it made him the 4th player to score in 4 consecutive world cups. Spain then tried to get back in the game, and they did with chances including David Silva's shot which went high over the bar. Their persistence paid off as with 24 minutes gone Diego Costa worked his way around the Portuguese defence to score the equalizer. Then a minute later Spain thought they had a second, but the ball didn't cross the line, and goal-line technology confirmed it despite the Spanish team arguing for VAR to be used, but the referee rejected the appeals. On the stroke of half-time, Ronaldo got the ball outside the box and had a strike at goal and scored off a howler by De Gea as it came off his gloves. However, it took a little while to confirm it because from the replays it showed that Ronaldo might have been offside; however, the VAR officials were happy that Ronaldo was onside, so the goal stood. At half-time with 2-1 Portugal, it became the game that the World Cup desperately needed.
Spain started the second half better, and it paid off as Diego Costa equalized for the second time in the match after brilliant teamwork off a free-kick ten minutes into the half. Then Spain took the lead off a screamer by Nacho which hit both posts before ending up in the back of the net. After that, it looked like a comfortable win for Spain as they took control of the pace of the game and even took Costa off, denying him a chance to score a hat-trick. However, before the 90 minutes were up, Portugal was given a free-kick which was the perfect range for Ronaldo. A lot of the fans in the stadium and commentators said the same thing "here we go again". And Ronaldo delivered scoring a world-class free-kick into the top corner of the net sending Portugal crazy and leaving Spain heartbroken. Ronaldo even stayed on for the whole match and went down with cramp showing how hard he worked.
At full-time everyone was saying the best game of the tournament so far and the pressure was now on Lionel Messi to top that performance if he has a chance of going for the Ballon d'Or. It was also the game that the World Cup desperately needed after three less than impressive matches.
Before the World Cup, there was controversy in the Spain team as their former head coach became the new Real Madrid Manager. In response, the Spanish Federation sacked the coach and installed their former sporting director as the coach with immediate effect. Meanwhile, in the Portugal camp, there was only one question. Could Cristiano Ronaldo finally end his World Cup woes? In his previous 3 world cups, he had scored only 3 goals in the whole length of the tournament Portugal have played in. However, before the game, his PR team announced that he would accept a two-year prison term and pay a hefty fine for tax evasion.
3 minutes into the game, Portugal got a penalty off a foul done to Ronaldo and became the first major incident to be reviewed by VAR. Still, it got confirmed as a penalty after a camera angle showed meaningful contact. Ronaldo stepped up and put the penalty into the back of the net sending the Spanish keeper David De Gea the wrong way. That was important as it made him the 4th player to score in 4 consecutive world cups. Spain then tried to get back in the game, and they did with chances including David Silva's shot which went high over the bar. Their persistence paid off as with 24 minutes gone Diego Costa worked his way around the Portuguese defence to score the equalizer. Then a minute later Spain thought they had a second, but the ball didn't cross the line, and goal-line technology confirmed it despite the Spanish team arguing for VAR to be used, but the referee rejected the appeals. On the stroke of half-time, Ronaldo got the ball outside the box and had a strike at goal and scored off a howler by De Gea as it came off his gloves. However, it took a little while to confirm it because from the replays it showed that Ronaldo might have been offside; however, the VAR officials were happy that Ronaldo was onside, so the goal stood. At half-time with 2-1 Portugal, it became the game that the World Cup desperately needed.
Spain started the second half better, and it paid off as Diego Costa equalized for the second time in the match after brilliant teamwork off a free-kick ten minutes into the half. Then Spain took the lead off a screamer by Nacho which hit both posts before ending up in the back of the net. After that, it looked like a comfortable win for Spain as they took control of the pace of the game and even took Costa off, denying him a chance to score a hat-trick. However, before the 90 minutes were up, Portugal was given a free-kick which was the perfect range for Ronaldo. A lot of the fans in the stadium and commentators said the same thing "here we go again". And Ronaldo delivered scoring a world-class free-kick into the top corner of the net sending Portugal crazy and leaving Spain heartbroken. Ronaldo even stayed on for the whole match and went down with cramp showing how hard he worked.
At full-time everyone was saying the best game of the tournament so far and the pressure was now on Lionel Messi to top that performance if he has a chance of going for the Ballon d'Or. It was also the game that the World Cup desperately needed after three less than impressive matches.
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