World Cup - Matchday 7

Welcome to another WhoReps look at the 2018 World Cup. Today we'll be recapping Wednesday's slate of games and looking ahead to tomorrow's matches! Enjoy.
                                            
Good thing there are no style points. It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't easy. But after 90 minutes, Portugal, Spain, and Uruguay all found ways to win today, with all three doing so by identical 1-0 scores. Just win, baby. 
 
Spain certainly had the closest brush with death, facing a very game Iran side that had won their opening match. A second tie would have put Spain's hopes to get out of the group in real jeopardy. They took the lead in the second half on another goal from Diego Costa, his third in two matches. But in the 63rd minute, Iranian midfielder Saeid Ezatolahi blasted one past keeper David De Gea, setting off a wild and extended celebration. Tie game, right? Wrong. The goal was disallowed on a delayed offsides call from the video review ref in the control room. They got the call right, but it broke Iranian hearts. Way she goes. They still can advance out of this group, provided they can beat Portugal. 
 
There are warning signs aplenty for Uruguay, despite picking up wins in both of their matches. Scraping by a Saudi Arabian team that looked completely overmatched against Russia doesn't inspire a ton of confidence. And Russia just handled an Egyptian side playing with Mo Salah with much more ease than Uruguay did without Salah playing. Despite having two world-class players in Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani, things simply are not clicking for them offensively. Their only goal in this one was off a bad goalkeeping blunder from Mohammed Al-Owais, himself a backup called on to replace the original keeper who let in five goals in the opening match. But a win is a win, nonetheless. Their third group match against the Russians will tell us a lot about both teams chances going forward. Saudi Arabia is eliminated, but with their heads held high after a much more inspired performance than their opener.

For Portugal, the question remains if anyone other than Cristiano Ronaldo will come to the party. He picked up his fourth goal in two matches just a few minutes into the contest with a trademark header, and that was it for the scoring. Though it wasn't for lack of trying from a desperate Morocco team, who actually possessed the ball longer and took significantly more shots than the Portuguese. It was a similar story in their opener against Iran, and yet they have two losses to show for it. All the possession in the world doesn't mean much if you can't finish. Hopefully next time they bring a decent striker. But Ronaldo, as usual, is the story here. With his 85th goal in international competition, he became the most prolific European goalscorer of all time, passing Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas. Another record bites the dust. The tournament's Golden Boot is certainly next on his mind.
 
Thursday's matches see Lionel Messi and Argentina facing an excellent Croatian side, as well as tournament heavyweight France going up against a Peruvian team playing in their first World Cup since 1982. Stay tuned to WhoReps as we recap it all!