Real Madrid Players in World Cup Action: Friday's Round Up

With only a few games remaining before the knockout stages at this summer's FIFA World Cup, here are the latest updates and permutations regarding Real Madrid stars in action at the tournament. 

To begin, in the very early hours CET, it was a positive end to a disappointing return to World Cup action for Arda Guler and Turkey. They were able to overcome hosts USA 3-2 at the SoFi stadium, thanks to a 98th minute winner. 

Having gone behind in the opening three minutes, Turkey equalised after just 10 minutes thanks to Guler, after some great link up play. Although they finish bottom of the group with three points, at least they avoided a total humiliation like Euro 2020. 

At 21:00, there was action for France, as they took on Norway to battle it out at the top of Group I. Aurelien Tchouameni was back in the side, having missed the win over Iraq, whilst Kylian Mbappe once again captained the team. For a third consecutive time, Ibrahima Konate was named on the bench, despite some rotation at centre half. 

In the first 25 seconds of the game, Mbappe was played through, but at an angle, and his powerful strike hit the woodwork. However, after seven minutes, the captain assisted Ousmane Dembele to open the scoring. 

Then, after twenty minutes again, the exact same combination struck again, making it two assists on top of four goals at the tournament for Real Madrid's number ten. That said, Norway went straight down the other end and got one back.

Just after the half hour mark, it was Tchouameni's turn to assist Dembele, who secured his first half hat-trick. A minute before half time, Mbappe nearly had assist number three after slipping Manu Kone through on goal, but he tried and failed to round the keeper.

With a quarter of an hour remaining, Konate made his first appearance of these finals, replacing Dayot Upamecano of Bayern Munich. France would run out 5-1 victors in the end. They will play a third placed side on Tuesday at 23:00 CET - likely Sweden.

Then, finally, we had the first Real Madrid match up of the tournament, as Marc Cucurella's Spain took on Federico Valverde's Uruguay. Both players were named in the starting XI by their respective managers. 

In what was an incredibly boring game, Spain ran out 1-0 winners, confirming their place as group winners, whilst Uruguay were knocked out of the competition, with two points not enough to be one of the best third placed finishers. 

Cucurella played the full 90, whilst Valverde was hooked 57 minutes in, after another disappointing performance. Spain will play either Austria or Algeria in the round of 32.