For a while, matchday one of World Cup Group H looked like it would end up having two scoreless draws. That was the case until the 60-minute mark of the Portugal vs Ghana skirmish.
Would have been fun though to see the table with every squad at one point and zero goals scored. It would have been a windfall if that parlay was hit.
Moving on, here are the grades that we gave to the teams of Group H in their first taste of action.
Portugal (A-)
Os Navegadores had numerous chances to breach the goal line, but they were not able to convert. Then Cristiano Ronaldo happened, and the floodgates were opened.
The first player to score in five World Cups, CR7 adds to his GOAT résumé. Kind of weird that he did this achievement while unattached.
South Korea (B+)
A statistically even match, the Taegeuk Warriors pushed on offense as much as they were steadfast on defense. This is the most exciting scoreless draw at this point of the group stage.
Uruguay (B+)
With blistering activity from end to end, the exhilarating encounter had La Celeste failing to get past the Korean defense.
Curiously, neither camp had a shot on target. Add to that, this is the first time Uruguay was not able to score against Korea in their head-to-head history.
Ghana (B-)
The lowest-ranked team in the tournament, the Black stars played above their weight.
Ghana was all about holding the line and keeping the Portuguese attackers at bay. They performed their best, but all it took was a slight bump to Ronaldo inside the box to change what was a goalless deadlock into a 3-2 slugfest in the final third of the fixture.
This concludes the first matchday of every group. What can we expect in the next set of games?
