World Cup preview: Portugal v Spain, Egypt v Uruguay, Morocco v Iran

The second day of the World Cup brings three games and the promise of the competition’s first meeting of two footballing giants as Portugal and Spain meet in the evening fixture, preceded by an intriguing match-up between Egypt and Uruguay.

• 1300 BST - Egypt vs Uruguay (BBC)
• 1600 BST - Morocco and Iran (ITV)
• 1900 BST - Portugal v Spain (BBC)

Five-time Ballon d’Or winner and all round footballing superhero Cristiano Ronaldo will lead Portugal from the front, but it’s not quite the one-man team as young talents Andre Silva and Gelson Martins are well worth keeping an eye on.

Spain’s line-up will be slightly harder to predict given the shock sacking of their manager Julen Lopetegui a day before the tournament began, following the announcement that he would join Real Madrid as coach after the World Cup.

Fernando Hierro, the former Real Madrid and Bolton defender, has been hastily hired and is likely to attempt to steady the waters by not making too many changes, and allowing regular creative forces David Silva and Andres Iniesta should be on show for all to enjoy.

Earlier in the day Egypt take on Uruguay, with Liverpool hero Mohamed Salah a possibility to start just under three weeks after his injury in the Champions League final.

Egypt manager Hector Cuper said: "I can almost assure you 100% he will play, save unforeseen circumstances at the very last minute. He could become the top goalscorer here and one of the greatest players."

Dark horses Uruguay meanwhile, will be headed by one of the tournament’s most terrifying strike partnerships, with PSG’s Edinson Cavani and Barcelona’s Luis Suarez sure to be leading the line. Defenders will be more worried about conceding than Suarez's fearsome teeth as the country's all-time top scorer has matured during his time at Barcelona.

Morocco and Iran are the two unfortunate teams to be sharing Group B with Spain and Portugal, and they face off in the day’s other game.

Morocco are back at the World Cup for the first time in two decades and will likely field an exciting team featuring skillful veteran M’Barek Boussoufa, rags-to-riches striker Ayoub el Kaabi and young Dutch-born playmaker Hakim Ziyech.

Incidentally, Ziyech’s decision to play for his parent’s country enraged Dutch legend Marco van Basten so much that he commented: “How stupid can you be to choose Morocco if you are in contention for the Dutch national team?”

Perhaps a little ironic considering the Dutch failed to qualify.

Iran have managed to reach a second consecutive World Cup for the first time and have a crop of in-form strikers to choose from: Alireza Jahanbakhsh was top scorer in the Eredivisie, Karim Ansarifard the second top scorer in Greece, while Kaveh Rezaei and Saman Ghoddos both had brilliant seasons in Belgium and Sweden respectively.