Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Get planning for Day 2 of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. [ MORE: Latest 2018 World Cup news ] We are in for a busy day of action after the opening match on Thursday which saw hosts Russia hammer Saudi Arabia. Group A’s second game takes place as Egypt and Uruguay collide with both nations the favorites to advance to the Round of 16. And Group B play also kicks off with perhaps the game of the whole group stage, with Iberian rivals Portugal and Spain clashing in Sochi. Morocco and Iran meet in Saint Petersburg elsewhere in Group B. Below is Friday’s schedule in full. Click here for live and on demand coverage of the World Cup online and via the NBC Sports App. 2018 World Cup schedule – Friday, June 15 Group A Egypt v Uruguay: Ekaterinburg, 8 a.m. ET – LIVE COVERAGE Group B Morocco v Iran: Saint Petersburg, 11 a.m. ET – LIVE COVERAGE Portugal v Spain: Sochi, 2 p.m. ET – LIVE COVERAGE Follow @JPW_NBCSports<doc-sep>Cristiano Ronaldo rolled up his shorts. Spanish players quivered in fear. And an entire planet waited, breath momentarily elusive, eyes wide in anticipation. The moment Olympic Stadium clocks struck 87:00 on Friday in Sochi was the moment we, as sports fans, live for. An outcome, a narrative, and sporting history were at the foot, and at the mercy, of a transcendent, polarizing player. Emotions, and quite possibly GOAT rankings, rested on his next move. And Ronaldo, like only he can, delivered. Take a bow, Cristiano Ronaldo. pic.twitter.com/pJwSByuz5y — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 15, 2018 Soccer, like only it can, delivered on Friday. Months of buildup had burdened Friday’s World Cup showdown between Spain and Portugal with almost unmeetable expectations. It surpassed all of them. It had everything. The two European rivals and neighbors gave us drama and dizzying twists of fate. They gave us megastar power and villain-on-villain crime. They gave us nauseating mistakes and atonement. They showcased the best of a sport whose lows can be dreadfully low, but whose highs soar above all else. [More World Cup coverage: Day 2 roundup] There was an oh so American line of thinking heading into the 2018 World Cup that the tournament would underwhelm with the U.S. absent. There were countless articles and advertisements advising grieving USMNT fans to adopt a team to cheer on in Russia. And then there were two hours on Friday afternoon that exposed all of that as nonsense. Soccer, as a sport, is dependent on nobody – no team, no individual, no single storyline. Artificial rooting interests are unnecessary. Not when the beautiful game can deliver spectacles like Spain-Portugal. Its beauty is not incessant. Two relatively drab games earlier in the day reminded us of that. But the beauty invariably rises out of the monotony. If you sat through six hours of soccer on Friday, you didn’t come away ruing the first four; you came away buzzing, because those first four made the final two – two of the greatest hours in World Cup history – all the more riveting, and all the more enjoyable. Story continues And that’s why we, the millions who witnessed Portugal 3, Spain 3 on Friday, were the real winners of the 2018 World Cup’s first full day. Winners: Us Is that a selfish way of looking at things? Eh. Maybe. But it’s the most succinct way to explain how gripping Friday’s whirlwind was. We’ll pick apart the match shortly. But the one universally held opinion coming away from it was: Wow. Just … wow. Neither Spain nor Portugal came away with three points. Neither is comfortably through to the knockout round. Neither was definitively superior. But both did their duty to soccer, and to us. In the end, sport is entertainment. And Friday’s actors, from Ronaldo to Nacho Fernandez and everybody in between, blew away their audience with one of the most splendid performances the world has ever seen. Winners: Spain and Portugal Both teams are also winners. Not to the degree either would have liked, especially when they held their respective second-half leads – Portugal at 2-1 after 50 minutes, Spain at 3-2 after 80. But the one result neither could afford was a loss. And rather than mutually achieve that objective in a conventional way, by engaging in a cagey, cautious sparring match, both did so in the most thrilling way imaginable. Both looked good doing it, too. Portugal showed more counterattacking bite than expected. Spain, which could have been reeling from the firing of its coach just two days earlier, responded to adversity with both zeal and style. [Schaerlaeckens: Spain stunned by managerial change, then by Portugal] Neither looked vulnerable. And with the lesser of the Group B challengers winning hours earlier, both European giants remain clear favorites to advance. Winner: Cristiano Ronaldo Ronaldo, once and for all, put to bed any remnants of the silly narrative that he can’t perform at major international tournaments. In 90 minutes, he doubled his career World Cup goal tally. He became the oldest player to scored a World Cup hat trick. With the score 3-2 to Spain, his first-half brace could have been passed off as lucky. But Ronaldo foiled that counterargument with a stroke of genius. Cristiano Ronaldo’s stunning free kick gave Portugal a pivotal and thrilling 3-3 draw with Spain at the 2018 World Cup. (Getty) Winner: Ronaldo’s reputation And not only did he flip World Cup narratives on their heads. He had haters eating their words just three minutes into the game. His tumble in the penalty box sure looked like a dive on first viewing – especially given Ronaldo’s penchant for embellishment: Always Be Selling pic.twitter.com/C2pEAoXZO9 — Nick Bromberg (@NickBromberg) June 15, 2018 But second replays clearly showed Nacho clipped Ronaldo’s right foot with his mistimed tackle, and made Ronaldo detractors think twice before they accuse him of flopping next time he throws himself to the turf. There was, of course, another incident that was more dubious – one that led Gerard Pique to say post-match that Ronaldo “is prone to throwing himself [to the ground].” But perhaps the legitimacy of the penalty primed the referee to trust Ronaldo and his falls. Loser: Iceland Cristiano Ronaldo was otherworldly on Friday. And whenever Cristiano Ronaldo does superhuman things, Lionel Messi almost always responds with superhumanness of his own. Messi and Argentina, conveniently, face Iceland tomorrow. So wish the World Cup debutants some luck … because they’ll need it. Winner: Diego Costa Diego Costa failed to impress at his first World Cup with Spain four years ago. Heading into Russia, there were questions about whether the mercurial striker would start. But he did, and he repaid his manager’s – managers’? – faith. He nabbed two of Spain’s three goals, and the first was vintage Costa: Diego Costa does it himself to pull Spain level! pic.twitter.com/7hoyfaHEyj — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 15, 2018 And just like that, there are no more question marks. Spain has its No. 9. He might not jibe with the Plan A. But he’s a darn good Plan B – which, on Friday, was even more useful. Loser: Pepe’s reputation Was there a foul by Costa on Portuguese defender Pepe in the buildup to the goal? Did Costa’s elbow catch Pepe’s face as they both elevated? Here the debated clash Diego Costa-Pepe on Spain goal. 50/50 challenge, it’s ok not to give the foul pic.twitter.com/CTfGiFAhRf — Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) June 15, 2018 Maybe, maybe not. A key factor in the referee’s decision to swallow his whistle, though, may have been Pepe’s reputation for theatrics. He rolled around on the ground, clutching his head. Then again, Pepe loves to roll around on the ground, clutching his head. And he was clutching a different part of his head than the one Costa’s elbow might have contacted. Refs use relevant information like this on 50/50, split-second calls. There’s every chance this was one of those cases. Winner: VAR Doubts about the use of video review, or VAR, at the 2018 World Cup have so far proved unfounded. Reviews have been executed seamlessly, without interrupting games. Ronaldo’s penalty and Costa’s goal were prime examples. Delays were minimal. And although both (non-)calls were disputable, neither was a “clear and obvious” error. The video assistant referees correctly upheld both, and nobody whined about VAR one bit. Winner: Lopetegui’s legacy? Spain equalized with a wonderfully engineered set-piece routine: Another one for Diego Costa! Spain’s training-ground free kick ends up in the back of the net thanks to Busquets and Costa. pic.twitter.com/lpEVcJALe5 — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 15, 2018 And who was its architect? Surely it wasn’t caretaker manager Fernando Hierro, who took over just two days ago. It had to have been ousted manager Julen Lopetegui, right? Hierro’s lineup and system was also more or less Lopetegui’s. So perhaps the newly-appointed Real Madrid boss had his hands on Friday’s game more than we realize. Loser: Luis Suarez Uruguay won the day’s early game on an 89th-minute header from Jose Maria Gimenez. But it only required the late winner because Luis Suarez had a no good, very bad day at the office.<doc-sep>World Cup 2018 started on Thursday with Russia blasting Saudi Arabia 5-0 to take a commanding lead in Group A in the only game of the day. Well friends, it is now time to dig in and hunker down. We have at least three and often four games every day until the group phase ends on June 28th. Today sees one Group A game and both Group B first round matches. Related The Sounders fan guide to FIFA World Cup 2018 Time: 5:00 AM Location: Ekaterinburg Arena, Ekaterinburg TV: Fox Sports 1 (English) and Telemundo (Spanish) Announcing team: Mark Followill and Warren Barton (English) Streaming: Fox Sports Go and Telemundo Deportes With Russia winning in an impressive 5-0 performance over Saudi Arabia yesterday effectively putting their marker down for the goal differential tiebreaker, this match just became much more important. Egypt’s World Cup preparation has been dominated with the story of Mohamed Salah, will he play or won’t he? Salah was enjoying one of the legendary seasons in the lore of the English leagues, leading Liverpool to the Champions League final and setting the 38 game single season Premier League goal scoring record with 32 goals scored before his shoulder was injured early on in the first half of the Champions League final and had to be subbed off. Reports out of Egypt camp are that Salah will play, but how effective will he be? This will be Egypt’s first World Cup Finals match since Italia 1990, they have come close to qualifying multiple times including a playoff loss for Brazil 2014 under manager Bob Bradley and have won four African Cup of Nations tournaments (1998, 2006, 2008 and 2010) over that stretch. Uruguay are a darkhorse to make a deep run in Russia led by the prolific strike duo of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani but in a weird quirk of statistical oddities, they have not won a World Cup opener since 1970. They have earned three draws and three losses in the six World Cups they qualified for over that stretch. If Uruguay are to start slow, do not discount the South American squad with winnable games over Saudi Arabia and hosts Russia still on the schedule. Time: 8:00 AM Location: Saint Petersburg Stadium, St. Petersburg TV: FOX (English) and Telemundo (Spanish) Announcing team: Derek Rae and Aly Wagner (English) Streaming: Fox Sports Go and Telemundo Deportes With Spain and Portugal also in Group B, this becomes a de facto elimination match as it will get late early for whichever teams fails to secure three points in this match. Morocco have not played in the World Cup since France 1998, but they have high hopes to sneak in ahead of Portugal into the knockout rounds. While Iran will be looking to avoid an ignominious start by the Asian Football Conference (AFC) after Saudi Arabia was ran off the field in the opener against Russia. Aly Wagner joins Derek Rae on commentary for this match. Wagner will be the first female game analyst on American television when this game commences. Wagner was on the call for Canada 2015 Women’s World Cup broadcast on Fox and was great, look for her to continue to win over the American soccer crowd. Spain vs. Portugal Time: 11:00 AM Location: Fisht Stadium, Sochi TV: FOX (English) and Telemundo (Spanish) Announcing team: John Strong and Stu Holden (English) Streaming: Fox Sports Go and Telemundo Deportes Where to start? Portugal are the reigning European Champions and boast arguably one of the best players of all time in Cristiano Ronaldo who at 33 years old is likely in his last World Cup where he will play a starring role and Ronaldo is coming into the tournament off an unprecedented third UEFA Champions League title in a row with Real Madrid. But Portugal are barely an afterthought in this match. Becuase Spain fired their manager, Julen Lopetegui, two days before their World Cup kicks off. Lopetegui committed to taking the Real Madrid job recently vacated by Zinedine Zidane AFTER the World Cup, but the Spanish football association took issue with the timing of the announcement and made an immediate change. There were reports of a player revolt led by Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos to keep the manager regardless of his post World Cup plans. But Lopetegui chose to not continue in his role and Fernando Hierro was appointed manager for the World Cup. Lopetegui was undefeated as Spain manager since taking over in 2016 and lead Spain through a smooth qualification campaign, in fact Spain is so highly regarded they were one of the top three to six betting favorites to lift the Cup. Before the change of course. This is your Sounder at Heart World Cup Day 2 gamethread. Watch with us.<doc-sep>
Don't miss a moment of the World Cup! Visit "My Teams" in your Settings and select your favorite team to set up scores and news alerts. Day 1 of the World Cup featured a five-goal game, but Day 2 gave us a six-goal thriller and a surprise leader in Group B. It was another crazy day of action, with late goals changing the tide in all three contests. Uruguay took on Egypt to start the day, then Morocco faced Iran before the day closed out with a clasico between Spain and Portugal. Here's everthing you need to know. Ronaldo goes nuts vs. Spain Cristiano Ronaldo put together quite the performance against Spain. Three goals in a dramatic, crazy 3-3 draw in what has been by far the best game of the tournament. Ronaldo led his team to a 2-1 lead and then got a late free-kick golazo. And as you can imagine, it left the world in awe. Iran wins second World Cup game ever, but can they go through? Iran won its second ever World Cup match on Friday, and it came on an own goal deep into added time. After beating the United States 2-1 back in 1998, the team got by Morocco 1-0 in heart-breaking fashion for the African nation. Oh and by the way, Iran is in first place in Group B. Can they make it out of the group? More below. How Group B shapes up after first matches Look, it's still early. But with three points, it all got better for Iran with Portugal and Spain drawing. It gives them a gap and really just means, one more win and they are likely through. But they could also draw and get through. Let's say Iran loses to Spain in the next game, Portugal draws Morocco, and then Iran and Portugal draw in the final game. That means Portugal would have drawn all three group stage games, just like at Euro 2016. That would mean Iran finishes with four points, and Portugal three, with Spain likely to have more to win the group. Sure, it's all hypothetical. But just one more draw for Iran could be enough if things go their way. But another win, and they are sitting prettier than anybody ever imagined. Spain and Iran are set to meet on Wednesday in Group B action, while Portugal will play Morocco earlier on Wednesday. Uruguay wasn't good but got some late magic The day started off with a match that looked like it was headed to a 0-0 finish. A powerful Uruguay couldn't crack a Mohamed Salah-less Egypt until the 89th minute, where Jose Gimenez scored a brilliant winner to give his team the 1-0 victory. Oh, and did you notice the stands outside of the stadium? Yes, outside. More about that, here. How Group A shapes up after first matches Obviously, Uruguay and Russia look like the favorites to advance from the group with three points each. Russia's large goal differential could end up coming into play, but Uruguay could make that a moot point with a win against the host team ... provided they don't lose their next match. Egypt will play Russia on Tuesday hoping for a win to get them back in contention in a match that figures to feature Mohamed Salah with Egypt looking to make something happen. Uruguay gets Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, and a win could lock them into a spot in the knockouts depending on what happens the previous day. Looking ahead to Saturday Four games on the slate for Saturday as Group C and D get underway. The top game is Argentina vs. Iceland, but it's sure to be an awesome day of World Cup action. Here's the schedule with our previews: France vs. Australia, 6 a.m. ET ( Preview Argentina vs. Iceland, 9 a.m. ET ( Preview Peru vs. Denmark, 12 p.m. ET ( Preview) Croatia vs. Nigeria, 3 p.m. ET ( Preview