Svengali is back, but for how long this time?

Côte d'Ivoire started the sharpest, while Cristiano Ronaldo found it hard to stay on his feet and easy to get Didier Zokora in the referee's book.

An early yellow card in the Ivory Coast defence made it easier for Ronaldo to run at the West Africans; touch, turn and smash the ball against the Ivorian post.

Less than a quarter of an hour after the first incident, Ronaldo flopped over Guy Demel's legs. Both players were booked for getting themselves all heated up and puffing out chests.

After a promising start, football fans were once again left disappointed, as yet another 2010 World Cup Finals match ended the half without a goal (seventh out of thirteen, so far).

Half-time: 0:0

Deco showed a little more initiative at the start of the second-half and in an attempt to be more affective up front, Simao soon replaced Danny for Portugal.

If the vuvuzelas could get any louder, they did in the 65 minute; when Didier Drogba came on for fellow Chelsea player, Salomon Kalou.

The fans may have waited a long time to see if Didier Drogba would play but they'll have to wait until another day to see if can score with a broken arm; although he came close in the last minutes, but whipped the ball across the goal instead of finding a way into it.

Who would have thought that the New Zealand vs Slovakia game would be more exciting than this billing, but it was - by far!

Ivory Coast 0 Portugal 0