Netherlands in front at halftime
Cody Gakpo’s brilliant goal inside the opening six minutes is the difference between Netherlands and Ecuador at half-time. Although, it hasn’t been plain sailing for Louis van Gaal’s side and they nearly went into the break level with Ecuador finding the back of in stoppage time. Unfortunately for the South Americans and goalscorer Pervis Estpunian, the goal was ruled out for offside so they still trail their Group A rivals.
Senegal leave Qatar on the verge of elimination
Senegal have left Qatar staring a World Cup exit in the face. Boulaye Dia pounced on a mistake to make it 1-0 before half-time before Famara Diedhiou doubled the lead soon after the interval. Qatar got back into the game after that and pulled one back through substitute Mohammed Muntari but, six minutes later, Senegal restored their two-goal advantage through another substitute, Bamba Dieng. And 3-1 was how it finished.
Cristiano Ronaldo creates yet another piece of history in five-goal thriller
Cristiano Ronaldo helps Portugal clinch a 3-2 win over Ghana in their World Cup opener; 37-year-old’s penalty saw him make history as the first male player to score in five World Cups. Portugal move top of Group H after Uruguay’s goalless draw with South Korea.
Richarlison scores stunning volley while Neymar ruled out of Brazil’s next Group G game
Richarlison becomes the first Brazilian player to score twice on his World Cup debut since Neymar in 2014. Neymar’s toxic relationship with injuries at the World Cup continues, he sustained ankle ligament damage in his side’s opening win against Serbia and the Brazil team doctor has confirmed that he will not feature against Switzerland, and may not play again during the group stage. Danilo has also been ruled out of the next match.
Messi saves Argentina from embarrassment as France reach World Cup knockout stage
After losing to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday – one of the biggest World Cup shocks ever – Argentina knew a second defeat would have booted them out of the tournament. Lionel Messi helped save his country from World Cup embarrassment as France became the first team to reach the knockout stage. Messi scored the first goal in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Mexico, with substitute Enzo Fernandez settling a bad-tempered clash against Mexico at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar.
FIFA confirm 94% attendance figure in first round of fixtures
After the first round of fixtures were brought to an end this week. FIFA published the attendance figures for the opening 16 games. That figure stood at 94% with the highest attendance coming in the game between Brazil and Serbia at Lusail Stadium; 88,103 people were in the crowd for that one.