Cristiano Ronaldo Ensures Spain’s Grand World Cup Experiment Gets Off to Rocky Start

After firing its manager just 24 hours before the start of the tournament, the Spaniards drew against Portugal, who got a hat-trick from their superstar forward

Jonathan Clegg

Updated June 15, 2018 7:23 p.m. ET

SOCHI, Russia—For more than six months, ever since the World Cup draw was made in December, Friday’s matchup between Spain and Portugal had been circled as the most enticing of the tournament’s opening round.

Here we had the first heavyweight meeting of two international soccer powers, and an early glimpse of Cristiano Ronaldo in what may be his final World Cup appearance.

But...