He lights up World Cup 2018 with stunning treble - Talking points from RONALDO 3-3 Spain

Cristiano Ronaldo lit up the World Cup finals with a stunning hat-trick, as Spain and Portual put on a six-goal thriller in Sochi.

Cristiano Ronaldo lit up the World Cup finals with a stunning hat-trick, as Spain and Portual put on a six-goal thriller in Sochi.

The Real Madrid superstar became the oldest man to score a World Cup treble at 33 years and 130 days, as Iberia's finest shared the spoils in a rollercoaster ride.

Now, the tournament is well and truly up and running. Here are five talking points...

1. Ronaldo wins De Gea battle

As Ronaldo prepared to take his early penalty, De Gea elected to attempt to put off the Portuguese superstar.

Needless to say it didn't work; Ronaldo held his nerve and wrapped his penalty into the net, sending De Gea the wrong way in the process.

He celebrated by rubbing his chin, an apparent not so subtle dig at De Gea's attempts to ice him.

Ronaldo was always going to be one of the matches main protagonists - after all, when is he not?

Few would have felt De Gea would play as big a role and particularly in the manner he did, a flimsy attempt to hold Ronaldo's tame low strike on the stroke of half-time seeing the ball spin into his own net.

On the day news broke that he has agreed a new five-year deal at Old Trafford, that is unlikely to have been how he would have liked to celebrate.

For good measure. Ronaldo added the 51st hattrick of his career, leaving De Gea helpless, with a brilliant late equaliser. That also showed that he is continuing to develop his game, Ronaldo having utilised a different freekick technique than that which we've become accustomed to.

2. Portugal add technical approach to their game

In many ways, Portugal's Euro 2016 success was what the tournament deserved after being expanded to 24 teams.

Santos' side drew all three group matches, lurching into the second round as a third-place side, and went on to win the competition after winning just once in normal time.

Their inability to break down lesser opposition was very much a theme - as it had been at the 2014 World Cup - but since their win in France, Santos has really stepped up in terms of putting out a side that is flexible, creative and capable at opening up opponents.

The return of Bernardo Silva (injured two years ago) has helped, as has the growth in the intervening period of a number of players who add different touches to the attack: Guedes' trickery, Andre Silva's centre-forward play, Gelson Martins' drive and Bruno Fernandes artistry.

Alas, it wasn't enough here, but will give them hope of still getting through the group.

3. Diego's delight

A bull of a striker, the Atletico Madrid hitman endured a miserable World Cup in the country of his birth, Brazil, when rushed into the Spanish set up four years ago.

But now he appears very much at home and in sync with the midfield magicians operating behind him.

A forceful, bruising, talismanic presence when he wants to be, he set the tempo of Spain's press when they didn't have the ball, and bullied the Portuguese centre-halves throughout the encounter.

His second goal was that of a poacher, shoving aside a defender before tapping home, but it was his first which was Costa at his best, a mix of power, precision, technique and no little devilment.

4. Isco's light shines again

Two of the best individual performances of the 2017-18 season, anywhere, came from Isco. Both were in Spain shirts: the first, in the 3-0 World Cup qualifying win over Italy last September, and the second, in the 6-1 friendly destruction of Argentina in March.

This didn't quite match those two virtuoso displays, but it wasn't half bad.

The boy from Benalmadena was at the centre of everything that was good about Spain, whether it be moving the ball quickly, playing through opposing lines with clever triangles, intelligently drawing fouls or with driving solo runs. He wasn't far from an early goal of the tournament contender either, with his first-half effort that clattered the bar.

His heatmaps at Real Madrid this season have shown that he has been given greater responsibility to roam all across the pitch and that was the case here, the 26-year-old operating mainly from the No.10 position but moving both laterally and vertically.

Throughout, Portugal couldn't get a handle on him.

5. Ronaldo with great World Cup display

The Spanish football federation will be sick of Real Madrid this week.

First the episode from Julen Lopetegui, now this from the Madridistas poster boy. Quite unbelievable.

But in all seriousness, on a day when Spanish courts reportedly made a judgment to hand him a suspended prison sentence - potentially also costing him a cool €18million - he dusted himself down and put on one of the great World Cup displays.

He looks fit and fresh and, most importantly, determined. The moment when he tried to tee up Guedes in the first half summed up how important this (apparent) finale on the global stage is to him; how may times before have we seen him try to take on a defender and go for goal himself? This, simply is about something more.

He's never quite done it at a World Cup finals since his first in 2006. He looks hell bent on making sure this one doesn't go past without him having a major say in the trophy's destiny.