
Just three minutes had elapsed of Portugal's big Group B opener against Spain when Cristiano Ronaldo made his presence felt.
The Real Madrid club-record goalscorer scored in Germany 2006 against Iran, in 2010 against North Korea and in 2014 against Ghana.
Barcelona great Andres Iniesta, who scored the victor in the 2010 World Cup final, is likely to be playing in his final global tournament after leaving the Camp Nou for Japanese side Vissel Kobe. "He was a great player and has known us for a long time", said Spain captain Sergio Ramos.
It's very tough to tell from that angle, and for now, we don't have any others. The fragility both between the goalposts and individual mistakes in the backline should be fixed, if La Roja are to go all the way to the World Cup trophy.
"We are not the favourites, but yes, we are candidates".
It was a remarkable signal of intent from the current Ballon d'Or victor, who had never made a serious impact in any of his previous three World Cups, only managing to score one goal in each.
Ronaldo has now scored in eight consecutive major tournaments, going back to Euro 2004.
Costa ran into the Portuguese centre back in the build-up to his equaliser in the 24th minute to cancel out Cristiano Ronaldo's fourth minute penalty. "Julen Lopetegui was part of this effort, he helped us qualify, but leaving aside any personal issues, the Spanish side is more important and the sooner we focus on the World Cup, the better for all", he said.
Football fans absolutely loved the former Everton player's tweet, which has racked up over 14,000 likes at the time of writing.
"It's a mistake, a hard ball, [but we] continue training to do things well in an important game against Iran because we have strong options to win". We have to give credit to what the team has done. "Now we have to think about the next match, which will also be hard".
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