Today’s open thread. We’re going to try and do this daily for the remainder of the World Cup, just to give you a platform to discuss the games, while allowing the rest of the comment-sections to stay relevant to their respective articles.

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Notes & Quotes

Sergio Ramos responds to Diego Maradona

Earlier this week, Diego Maradona claimed that Sergio Ramos was not as good as his city-rival Diego Godin when it comes to defending. After Spain beat Iran Wednesday night, Ramos responded in an interesting way, saying: “In Argentina they know that Maradona is light years away from the best Argentine player in history which, for me, is Lionel Messi.”

On the actual game, Ramos said: “They [Iran] went out to waste time, whereas we like to win in a different way,”

”We leave happy. We’ve taken another step forward and now we have to try to top our group, it’s our objective.

“I still think we can improve in all aspects.”

The story behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s goatee

There have been a lot of salty takes from football Twitter (and beyond) since Cristiano Ronaldo started growing facial hair (which, many people actually thought was in response to Messi’s photoshoot). The story, told by Ronaldo himself:

“This goatee? It’s a joke I had with [Ricardo] Quaresma.

”We were in the sauna [before Friday’s match against Spain] and I started to shave and I left the goatee - I said if I score tomorrow I would leave it for the rest of the tournament.

”And it gave me luck, I scored that game, I scored this one, so it stays.”

Dani Carvajal calls Iran’s style of football ‘disloyal’

After Spain’s win over Iran, Carvajal told the press he was not a fan of the antics that Carlos Quieroz’s men displayed.

“The team sits back and that is a tactical strategy that is part of the game,” Carvajal said.

”But the injuries are simulated.

”This is not football, it is disloyal, but everyone there with their conscience.”

“It has been hard for us to open the door,” Carvajal added. “But we kept the clean sheet despite the chances they have had - they are three very important points.

”We are a team that plays direct, open and I hope we do not have rivals that put many players in their area.”

Assorted

ICYMI