Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi take centre stage as the World Cup shifts into high gear at the weekend with the start of the knockout matches in the loaded top half of the draw.

Lionel Messi is under pressure to deliver when Argentina face Croatia on Thursday after his eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo streaked clear at the top of the World Cup goalscoring charts.

Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo netted an early diving header to help his side beat Morocco 1-0 in their second Group B match at the World Cup in Moscow yesterday.

Portugal vs Morocco : Cristiano Ronaldo followed up his opening game heroics at the World Cup with the only goal in a 1-0 win for Portugal against Morocco as the European champions edged closer to the last 16.

Cristiano Ronaldo became Europe’s all-time leading international scorer with 85 goals when he headed in Portugal’s opening strike in their World Cup Group B match against Morocco on Wednesday.

Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan has hit back after it was wrongly reported Cristiano Ronaldo had become the first man to score at eight successive major tournaments.

Cristiano Ronaldo has emphatically won the first round of his World Cup duel with eternal rival Lionel Messi — revelling in the adulation after his dramatic hat-trick while the Argentine flopped against Iceland.

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has agreed to pay the Spanish taxman 18.8 million euro ($20 million) to settle a tax fraud claim, a legal source said Friday.

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has agreed to pay the Spanish taxman 18.8 million million euro ($20 million) to settle a tax fraud claim, a legal source said Friday.

Cristiano Ronaldo will launch his latest and probably last attempt to crown his career with a World Cup 2018 winners medal when European champions Portugal face neighbours Spain in their opening World Cup 2018 game here on Friday.