Penalties – missed and converted – and interventions by the Video Assistant Referee provided some of the main storylines on day three in Russia.

A brave Australian side were eventually succumbed 2-1 by France in their opener in Kazan with two of the three goals coming from penalties.

Iceland wonderfully picked up where they left off at Euro 2016, coming back from a goal down to draw 1-1 with powerhouses Argentina, for who Lionel Messi missed the chance to win the game from the spot.

Peru’s return to the top table after 36 years in the World Cup wilderness proved to be an unhappy one, losing 1-0 to Denmark and also missing a spot-kick.

And to complete the set, Croatia’s talisman Luka Modric also converted from twelve yards to help his side ease to a 2-0 win over Nigeria.

Heroes

The Viking Clap is back. Iceland continued to write their fantastic footballing fairy-tale, recovering from 1-0 down to score their maiden World Cup goal and notch their first point against one of the tournament’s most formidable opponents. Iceland has a population of just 340-thousand people, making it one-fourteenth the size of New Zealand. I thought smaller football nations couldn’t compete with bigger ones?

Australian defender Trent Sainsbury was Herculean in the heart of his side’s defence as they fought off wave after wave of French forays before eventually cracking. The elegant central defender belongs in one of Europe’s top leagues and may well end up there after performances like this one.

Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel earned a raft of deserved plaudits after his side’s opening win, making six saves and keeping a fifth consecutive clean sheet for his country. 

Villains

Video Assistant Referees were supposed to take the controversy out of football. Instead, they’ve just created more. France’s opening goal against Australia came after VAR intervention with play having continued for a good thirty seconds after the incident in question. In the next game, Argentina’s claims for what appeared to be a clear-cut penalty were turned down. Peru were also handed a spot-kick after a review. The VAR leaves fans somewhere between confused and fuming, it disrupts the flow of the game and most importantly, the decisions reached still aren’t universally agreed upon. Just get rid of it.

Less than 24 hours after Cristiano Ronaldo’s one-man show for Portugal, his rival as the planet’s best footballer, Lionel Messi, missed a golden chance to get Argentina off to a winning start, seeing his penalty turned away by Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson. Chalk up round one in the “world’s best player” argument to Ronaldo.

They said what?

Australia coach Bert van Marwijk: “I hope that maybe one time there’ll be a referee that’s very honest. In that moment, going to the screen, I saw him standing there, the body language showed he didn’t know, and then he had to make a decision between France or Australia. I got a lot of reactions. It’s very difficult for a referee with 50,000 people behind him and he’s doubtful. I think he was standing very close to the moment. He directly said ‘no penalty’ and ‘go on’. For me he’s also a human being, so everyone makes mistakes.”

Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson: “I did some homework. This was a situation which I knew could come up. I looked at a lot of penalties from Messi and had a good feeling that he would go this way today.”

Stat chat

There have already been more unsuccessful penalty attempts in this World Cup (two from six) than there were in the entire 2014 tournament (one from 13, excluding shootouts).

Lionel Messi became the first Argentine player since 1966 to take 11 or more shots at goal in a World Cup match without scoring.

The two youngest players at the World Cup both featured as France met Australia. At 19 years and 178 days, Kylian Mbappe became France’s youngest ever World Cup player while Daniel Arzani (who is 15 days younger) became his country’s youngest when he made a late appearance from Australia’s bench.

The two penalties scored in that game were just four minutes and seven seconds apart, the shortest period of time between two penalties being scored by different sides in a World Cup match.

What’s next?

We get our first look at two of the competition favourites tomorrow morning.

Germany open the defence of their title against Mexico at 3am (NZT), while Brazil seek redemption for the embarrassment of 2014 when they play Switzerland at 6am.

The night’s first game pits Costa Rica against Serbia at midnight.