Fifa World Cup 2018 match day 7 highlights: A day of binaries (1-0)

All three matches on day seven ended in a 1-0 result that saw Uruguay advance to the group of 16, and Saudi Arabia and Morocco crashing out of the tournament.

As the Fifa World Cup 2018 completes a week, clarity has started emerging on who will advance to the next stage and who will bow out of the tournament. Wednesday wrote the epitaph of Saudi Arabia and Morocco, who join Egypt as the teams who will pack their pack and travel home as soon as the group stage ends. All three matches on the seventh day produced binary results (1-0), with Portugal, Uruguay, and Spain emerging victorious against Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Iran respectively.

Who scored in each match: Cristiano Ronaldo scored the lone goal for Portugal and improved his tally of goals in the ongoing tournament to four while Luis Suarez scored for Uruguay. Diego Costa had a strike ricochet off towards goal against Iran.

Here are the highlights of today’s matches:

1st Match: Portugal vs Morocco

 

Morocco are out of the FIFA World Cup 2018 after losing their second match today against Portugal in Group B of the FIFA World Cup 2018 at the Luzhniki Stadium. They'd be especially sore about it because they lost the two matches despite playing arguably better than their opponents. But then again, luck wasn't on their side and neither was Ronaldo, who made all the difference.

Ronaldo scored his fourth goal of the tournament in the fourth minute when Portugal earned a corner. Bernaro Silva took a short corner from which Moutinho sent in a cross. Ronaldo, diving, got at the end of the delivery, giving his team the lead. As much as it was Ronaldo being the fox-in-the-box, Morocco too had been guilty of shoddy defending, with Ronaldo left unmarked, a grave sin.

Trivia: Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first Portugal player since José Torres in 1966 to score a goal with his right foot, left foot and head in a single World Cup tournament.

2nd Match: Uruguay vs Saudi Arabia

Uruguay are through to the last 16 courtesy their ability to grind out a win out of even drab matches. This was one of such games with chances coming few and far between at Rostov Arena in the Group 'A' match. Saudi Arabia are out of the tournament although they were arguably the better team but they paid for a moment of lapse in concentration in which Luis Suarez pounced and scored the sole game of the sluggish match.

Trivia: Luis Suarez is the first Uruguayan player to score in 3 different World Cups (2010, 2014 & 2018).

3rd Match: Spain vs Iran

Spain vs Iran

Diego Costa scored a second-half winner to help Spain edge past doughty Iran 1-0 in a key Group B FIFA World Cup 2018 game.

After a barren first-half where Spain were left frustrated as Iran defended brilliantly, Costa (54th) broke the deadlock albeit in fortuitous circumstances. Costa's shot ricocheted off a defender to beat goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand. Iran tried to launch a comeback and almost equalised when Saeid Ezatolahi scored from close only for the goal to be disallowed after VAR review showed he was offside.

Spain are now level on points with Portugal in Group B, while Iran are in third.

Trivia: Gerard Pique made his 100th appearance for Spain, joining team-mates Sergio Ramos, Andres Iniesta, David Silva and Sergio Busquets in that illustrious club.