World Cup 2018: 3 key battles that decided the game as Portugal beat Morocco

Not often do you see a team score in the 4th minute, and then spend the next 86 minutes holding on for dear life, and you certainly do not expect Portugal to be that team. But that is exactly what happened, as Portugal held out for a 1-0 win against Morocco to go to the top place in the group.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored within the first 5 minutes with a bullet header, and that was it as for the most part.

Morocco took control of the game, and kept getting closer and closer but that final knock-out punch never came from them. In the end, the strike proved to be the only difference between the sides in the 2018 World Cup clash.

As always, there were a few individual battles that went a long way in deciding the final outcome of the fixture. Here's a look at 3 of them,

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#1 Hakim Ziyech vs Cedric Soares

The best player on the pitch by a long distance, and definitely did not deserve to be on the losing side

To call Ziyech the best player of this match would be an understatement. Slotted as the left winger, Ziyech ran pretty much the entire game, and was the player around which all of Morocco's attack revolved.

On corners, he was there. When defending corners, he was there to take the ball and start the counters. On free-kicks, he was there to send the ball floating into the box. Despite everything he did, Morocco couldn't find it in them to put the ball into the net.

Cedric Soares will be seeing visions of a red-and-green clad Ziyech running past him, around him, and through him for the next couple days. It was to his credit that he never got frustrated and never tripped Ziyech foolishly in the box, as that is what most defenders would have chosen to do.

In the end, that was enough for Portugal. They have shown that they are capable of grinding out a result, no matter how ugly it looks on the pitch.

#2 Nordin Amrabat vs Raphael Guirrero

Amrabat was simply exceptional in attack, and was all over the Portugal defense

If it was Ziyech running things on the left, it was Amrabat on the right. It was uncertain he would be fit enough to play, and he came on in the first half with a protective head gear. But then the gear came off, and so did the brakes on his feet.

He spent the majority of the game in the Portugal half looking for a way in, and along with Ziyech ran the whole show. He played one-twos with El-Ahmadi, he took down long balls from Ziyech and he did everything but pull one back.

Like Soares, Guirrero is going to take a long time to get over this. He did get frustrated every now and then, but was sensible enough to do the fouls well and far away from the penalty box.

This should have been a proper training for Guirrero ahead of the important matches to come, even more harder than the ones he might face against the more fancied teams.

What matters is that he held out for the 90 minutes without doing anything too stupid, and Portugal can take away the feeling that their full-backs are at least cleverer than they are solid.

#3 Cristiano Ronaldo vs Medhi Benatia

The header in the opening 5 minutes was what separated the sides statistically

In the battle of the captains, Cristiano Ronaldo was the one who was responsible for his side's victories, and all Benatia could manage was a case of the so near yet so far. Benatia had a couple of good chances to get back a goal for his side, but it was not to be.

Ronaldo's header caught Morocco by surprise, as he beat every defender around him and hit the ball with great speed to the right top corner.

But after that, he went missing for a long period of time before coming alive to create Portugal's second best chance of the game, only for Munir to deny Guedes with a firm hand.

From then on it was not Ronaldo's day but it was because Portugal never had enough of the ball to trouble Morocco. When they had the ball, their passes were either intercepted or were pressured by the Moroccans to lose possession in their own half.

Medhi Benatia was at his solid best for most of the game after failing to mark Ronaldo for the first goal, and sometimes that is all it takes. In offense too, it was not his day, as his shots went just off target and Portugal took home a win they will savour.