There's nothing like a neighbourly challenge.

David Villa tested his shooting boots in the third minute. A couple of minutes later, he stretched his running legs.

Then we were treated to the usual hands on hips from Cristiano Ronaldo, when a free-kick wasn't given to him.

Iker Casillas flapped at a Tiago shot in the 20th minute but instantly redeemed himself by palming the ball away from Hugo Almeida's head.

Casillas looked suspect again, eight minutes later, when he shovelled at a Ronaldo free-kick.

Argentina's Hector Baldassi just shook his head and left Ronaldo sitting on the floor again in the 35th minute. Ronaldo stayed on his feet four minutes later, by not running into players on purpose. Instead, when the run came to a dead-end, he just laid the ball back.

Casillas raced off his line shortly before the break, to make sure the deadlock wasn't broken. If it keeps on like this, we could be in for a long evening.

Half-time: 0:0

Nothing too inspiring at the start of the second-half.

Third-time lucky for Casillas, as he watched a potential Spain own-goal just bobble past his post; Almeida's low cross taking something of a looping deflection off a defender.

Just a minute after coming on for Fernando Torres, Fernando Llorente should have scored with a free header.

Spain looked more lively and after a series of combination passes around the Portugal area, David Villa scored at the second attempt. The arrival of Llorente has added the much-needed strength to the Spanish front line.

After a run down the right, Sergio Ramos came close to adding a second for Spain seven minutes later. Then it was Villa's turn to try a long shot on the left.

With four minutes to go, Llorente glanced a header wide and then a couple of minutes later his over-acting earned Ricardo Costa a red card. The man who came on and started putting it about amongst the Portuguese defenders was seen rolling around like a baby.

Oh the pain.

Spain 1 Portugal 0

North Korea, who did so well against Brazil - holding out for 55 minutes and scoring a consolation goal in the last - would have to go one step better against Portugal; who themselves only had one point on the board, from their game against Ivory Coast.

Cristiano Ronaldo, already on a yellow card, would miss the Portugal vs Brazil game with another booking here; so we expected football, not diving.

North Korea started a little more adventurous than they did against Brazil, which in turn gave Portugal more space to run into.

From a corner in the seventh minute, North Korea's Ri Myong-Guk came off his line and totally missed the ball; giving Ricardo Carvalho a free header onto the top corner of the upright.

A few minutes later, Cha Jong-Hyok gave Portugal a minor scare as his shot screamed wide of Eduardo's goal.

North Korea put together some good passing to get into the Portugal box in the seventeenth minute; Eduardo needing to get his hand to Hong Yong-Jo's surprise attempt at goal. Not a great shot but cause for concern; all made possible because the ball rolled away from Ronaldo, who had drifted into the middle a little in search of the ball.

Two minutes after North Korea were falsely called offside, Tiago found plenty of room in the middle to comfortably thread the final ball through a gap in the North Korea penalty area, for Raul Meireles to finish.

Half-time: 1:0

At the start of the second-half, Portugal streaked forward and Tiago's shot had to be tipped over the bar; as the Europeans tried to show that they were back in business.

A couple of minutes later, Jabulani caused Ri Myong-Guk problems; bouncing, bobbling and generally not wanting to be cleanly gathered. We've seen those go in.

The pressure paid off as Simão ran on to a Meireles through-ball; after a neat chested one-two on the edge of the North Korean area.

North Korea paid the price for being adventurous and it looked like the floodgates were finally opened: as two minutes later Hugo Almeida headed Fabio Coentrão's cross home; then on the hour it was the turn of Cristiano Ronaldo to provide for Tiago.

In less than six minutes North Korea were completely taken apart and their World Cup dreams truly sunk by an all-guns blazing, Portuguese side.

With plenty of free runs, it only seemed a matter of time before Cristiano Ronaldo would add his name to the scoresheet as well.

Instead it was Liedson, only on the pitch for a few minutes, who crashed in Portugal's fifth.

But there was still time for Cristiano Ronaldo not to disappoint, then Tiago joined the rout to put Portugal in seventh heaven and leave Sven Goran Eriksson deep in a goal difference hole - even if Ivory Coast could beat North Korea and Brazil were to beat Portugal in the last group games.

Portugal 7 North Korea 0

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