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The World Cup in Russia has done that thing it always does.

It started softly, softly with one game and unfurled into a gluttonous indulgence from which you can’t help but feast your eyes.

Yes, even if that means you have to shelve your political awareness and sing yourself into a Kumbaya trance to ignore the fact that the World Cup features some of the countries with the worst human rights abuses on the planet.

Speaking of ignorance, let’s get into it.

At the time of writing, before Sunday’s fixtures, we’ve had 21 goals scored across eight games.

That’s an average of 2.63 per match, which is on course to equal the 2.67 average from the 2014 edition in Brazil.

Three of those have been own goals, two of which were scored by people called Aziz. In 2014, there were just five own goals in the entire tournament.

Five teams have managed to keep a clean sheet, but a solid defensive structure doesn’t tend to make the highlights reel, unless it’s a penalty save. Fortunately there’s been a bit of that, too.

Let’s round up some of the best bits of the 2018 World Cup so far.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s hat-trick

No matter what you think of Cristiano Ronaldo as a human being, he is a pretty fine footballer. He announced his arrival at the tournament with a hat-trick and the fastest goal from kick off in the competition so far. But it was his final strike from a late free-kick against rivals Spain that was the most spectacular.

His gravity-defying shot sailed over the wall and into the net as if it were remote controlled. Sensational.

Lionel Messi’s miss

#Messi has missed four of the last seven penalties he has taken for Barcelona and Argentina combined. #ARGISL #WorldCup2018 pic.twitter.com/HAkf6P3kEB

— Subin Dennis (@subindennis) June 16, 2018

Speaking of good footballers, Lionel Messi is kind of alright. Except at World Cups. The Argentinian pocket rocket had a bit of a ‘mare when his side were held to a 1-1 draw by heroic Iceland on Saturday.

Interestingly, Messi has a dubious penalty record in national colours – with just 75 percent of his international efforts hitting the target. But that’s actually better than Ronaldo’s record for Portugal, with just a 63.63 percent success rate.

Christian Cueva howler for Peru

https://twitter.com/areadeport1350/status/1008031271501656065

While Messi’s shot was stopped, at least it wasn’t this abomination from Christian Cueva. The poor bloke. Not even a PSL team would sign him with that display.

The goal that rocked Morocco

If Siphiwe Tshabalala’s opener against Mexico was “a goal for all of Africa” then this was a goal against all of Africa. Iran sneaked a late 1-0 win against Morocco thanks to Aziz Bouhaddouz’s own goal. The Iranians celebrated like they scored it, of course, but that doesn’t really matter.

From Russia with love

Russia put five goals past Saudi Arabia in the tournament opener, but it was Denis Cheryshev’s screamer – his second of the match – that was the pick of the bunch. Take note if you ever find yourself wanting to take a shot from outside the box. This is how it’s done. DM