It's Ronaldo Day at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The Portuguese ace first solves his problems with the Spanish tax authorities (he gets a two-year suspended plea and an 18,8 million euro fine), then shows off a monstrous performance in the big match against Spain: hat-trick and Roja caught at 3-3 one minute from the end, after two goals from Diego Costa and a goal from Nacho. For Cr7 it is the first hat-trick in a World Cup: indeed, until the match against Spain he had only scored three goals in 13 appearances. But now Portugal's number 7 is also the first player to score in 8 consecutive international tournaments, from Euro 2008 to the current World Cup.
The Sochi challenge lives up to expectations and the show is fireworks. Spain seems to pay for the great confusion of the past few days, impacting the game very badly, which turns around after just 4 minutes, with Nacho's foul on Ronaldo in the area and the penalty impeccably transformed by CR7. With the match unlocked, the Portuguese close up and strike on the counterattack, but Gonçalo Guedes, who is preferred to AC Milan player André Silva, misses a couple of favorable chances, and so the Spanish equal arrives (24th), with an overbearing Diego Costa, very good at controlling ball between three opponents after a borderline tackle with Pepe and to pass diagonally Rui Patricio. Now the Red Furies are playing better and shortly after Isco hit an incredible crossbar and Iniesta almost hit the post, but Portugal have a Superman version of Ronaldo and a minute from the interval they regain the advantage with a left footed shot from the edge on which de Gea make a mess looking for the ground.
In the second half, only one team came out of the locker room, Spain, which definitively took control of the match and overturned it in the space of 3 minutes: in the 55th minute, Diego Costa took advantage of Busquets' side on the development of a free-kick and scored the 2 -2, then Nacho scores the advantage with a feat from distance. The changes do not change the inertia of the match, which seems to be sliding towards its natural conclusion, but in the 88th minute that phenomenon called Cristiano Ronaldo reappears, who takes the free-kick on Piqué's foul and transforms it with a brushstroke of his . A phenomenon, in the face of which the Sochi public stands up. It ends 3-3 between Portugal and Spain and the feeling is that the real World Cup has started tonight.
