It has not taken long for the first two Round-of-16 places to be claimed. Uruguay beat Saudi Arabia to make it two wins out of two and progress to the knockout phase. In the process, they eliminated the Saudis and ensured that hosts Russia also advanced.

The first tears of this FIFA World Cup™ have also fallen. Despite their best efforts against the European champions, Morocco let themselves down with their finishing and fell to another defeat to become the first side to exit the competition. The man who condemned them to their fate was Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored his fourth goal of the tournament.

It was also a day for centurions, with both Luis Suarez and Gerard Pique winning their 100th caps. But while the Uruguayan celebrated with a goal to become the first Charrúa to score in three different World Cups, the Spaniard was made to suffer in what turned out to be a very tough assignment for La Roja against IR Iran.

The AFC side’s deep-lying defence thwarted the Spanish attack for long periods, while their lightning counter-attacks put David De Gea’s goal under threat on more than one occasion. Diego Costa forced a defensive error in the Iranian box to finally tilt the match in Spain’s favour and put them in a very strong position in Group B.

With 85 international goals now to his name, Cristiano Ronaldo overtook Ferenc Puskas to become the all-time leading European marksman. The only player on the global scene who has scored more is former IR Iran striker Ali Daei with 109.