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Heroes step forward

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What a cracking start the tournament has had. Following Russia's goal binge on Thursday, we've continued ticking along at >3 per game on average. Very nice thank-you very much. On Friday, after a blazingly troublesome week at work, I'd taken the wise decision to work from home in the afternoon. It's not something I can do very often in my job, so I lapped up the opportunity; pulling together stats and clearning down emails to the backdrop of Egypt vs Uruguay and Morocco vs Iran. I'd be saving my full attention of course for the big one in the evening (Spain vs Portugal).

Egypt vs Uruguay was a bit of a disappointment. A below-par Suarez missed a couple of good chances before falling into his usual routine of feigning actual slaughter on the pitch. Cavani, his strike partner looked very dangerous through. The game petered towards a bore draw when Uruguay finally got a breakthrough at the death. I think they will improve.

Then, one of my favourite types of fixture - Morocco vs Iran. Properly obscure, yet a genuine opportunity for a winner to give themselves a real chance of getting through the group. The game, I thought, was actually really entertaining. Morocco were clearly better, but Iran were committed to their counter attacks and made the contest interesting. The second half tested my own commitment somewhat more, and it was all drifting towards an abject draw when Aziz Bouhaddouz placed a perfect diving header past his own keeper in the 94th minute. That's Morocco's tournament pretty much over right there.
Intense

No need to get into the detail of the evening game as I'm sure everyone has seen and read about it. What a game. And love him (like he does) or hate him (like the police/fraud squad and much of the planet), Ronaldo is simply a phenomenal player, adapting his game as he slows and grows older, but still absolutely lethal. I am hoping that his performance sets the benchmark for a tournament of heroes.

I'm sat in my newly created mancave now, taking in Argentina and Iceland, currently locked at 1-1 after a good first half. This after watching a limited Australia team give France a fright before eventually losing 2-1. It's good this, and to think we've got Peru this afternoon, and a glimpse at that Croatia midfield tonight, then Germany and Brazil tomorrow before England on Monday. Great stuff.

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