Mastercard ends meals-for-goals campaign with Neymar, Messi

Sweden's preparations for their World Cup clash against Germany have been hampered by a stomach bug that has prevented three players from travelling to Sochi, where Saturday's game will be played.

Coach Janne Andersson revealed that defenders Pontus Jansson and Filip Helander, along with midfielder Marcus Rohden, were left behind at the team's tournament base further up Russia's Black Sea coast in Gelendzhik to avoid any danger of the illness spreading.

However, the hope is that they will recover to come to Sochi in time for the match.

"We have split the squad. We didn't bring them on the flight because we didn't know what had made them feel a bit queasy, but they will travel tomorrow," Andersson said at a press conference at Sochi's Fisht Stadium on Friday.

Sweden's team doctor said in a statement on the official Swedish FA website that the trio were "on the mend".

Of the three, only Leeds United defender Jansson played in Sweden's opening 1-0 win over South Korea, and that was because Manchester United's Victor Lindelof was ill.

Lindelof has travelled to Sochi and could return against Germany but there is a doubt over striker Isaac Kiese Thelin, who has an ankle problem.

While Sweden, who qualified for the finals after ousting Italy in a play-off, come into the game in a strong position, Germany are on the brink of a full-blown crisis.

A defeat at the hands of Mexico in the first match of their trophy defence means they cannot afford another slip-up in Group F on Saturday.

"This is really what you spend your whole career and life working towards. It is an extraordinary opportunity to be involved in a World Cup match like this," said Andersson.

"Whether we knock out Germany is one thing, but we have a chance to qualify and that is extraordinary."

Cristiano Ronaldo's off-night against Iran nearly cost Portugal their World Cup dream and underlined the stark need for his team-mates to contribute more in support of the Real Madrid superstar.

Ronaldo carried Portugal through their first two group games, hitting a memorable hat-trick in a 3-3 draw with Spain before netting the winner in a gritty 1-0 victory over Morocco.

That left the European champions requiring just a point from their clash with Carlos Queiroz's Iran in Saransk, but an uncharacteristic display from Ronaldo had them sweating over a place in the last 16.

The five-time world player of the year missed a penalty that would have given Portugal a 2-0 lead, Ronaldo was then perhaps fortunate to receive just yellow after an elbow on Iran defender Morteza Pouraliganji.

A disputed Iran penalty set up a tense final few minutes for Portugal, who only advanced to the knockout rounds after Mehdi Taremi fired a last-gasp chance into the side netting.

Qualification was at last assured, albeit with an upcoming tie against Uruguay rather than hosts Russia, but Ronaldo was far from impressed.

"I understand, it's normal. The best players in the world face that when there isn't an opportunity to really make it happen," said Portugal boss Fernando Santos.

"That hurts a lot more to them than to other players. They always want to win. They want to be the best and refuse to fail, and when they fail they get very upset."

Santos attempted to relieve some of the burden on Ronaldo by aligning Andre Silva alongside the Portugal captain in attack, with Ricardo Quaresma also handed his first World Cup start.

While Quaresma rewarded his coach with a stunning opening goal just before half-time, Silva offered little as Ronaldo found himself isolated and his opportunities limited.

Goncalo Guedes and Bernardo Silva were dropped after failing to shine in the opening two games, but Monday's performance showed Portugal are still scrambling to find the dynamic that best supports Ronaldo.

"There were lots of misplaced passes, the tempo was slow after the first 15 minutes," Santos said in the wake of the Morocco match. "Our team is strong but we must progress. We must do better than that."

Next up for Portugal is a Uruguay team, marshalled by the rugged centre-back pairing of Diego Godin and Jose Maria Gimenez, that has yet to concede in Russia.

"We have our weapons and we must try to make the most of them," Santos said on Monday.

Gelson Martins, the talented young winger who made a 30-minute appearance off the bench against Morocco, is another option who could be called upon going forward.

The question is not if Portugal have the weapons but whether they can be assembled in a way that plays to Ronaldo's strengths at his fourth and likely final World Cup.

Dramatic late strikes by Philippe Coutinho and Neymar gave Brazil their first win of the World Cup against Costa Rica in St Petersburg on Friday and broke Central American hearts by sending them out of the tournament.

The result leaves the five-times world champions with four points from two games after they drew 1-1 with Switzerland in their opening match, and they provisionally rise above Serbia to top Group E.

Serbia play Switzerland later on Friday.

The clock had ticked past 90 minutes when Marcelo crossed from the left and substitute Roberto Firmino headed the ball back across goal to Gabriel Jesus.

Jesus's first touch took the ball away from the defender and Coutinho raced in to poke past Keylor Navas from six metres out and claim his second goal of the tournament.

Neymar added the second with practically the last kick of the game, racing on to Jesus's square ball following a quick counter-attack as Costa Rica were forced to push for the equaliser.

The forward, who thought he had won a penalty in the 77th minute only for the referee to reverse the decision after consultation with the video assistant referee (VAR), was overcome by emotion on the whistle, covering his face as tears streamed down his cheeks.

For long periods Costa Rica's flat-back five kept Neymar on the periphery, with Johan Venegas and Cristian Gamboa both man-marking him out of the game as Brazil found it hard to carve out chances in the first half.

Marcelo's tame shot straight at Navas in the 41st minute was the first effort on target from either side before the break, and the team went into halftime with the boos and whistles of their own fans ringing in their ears.

Celso Borges spurned arguably the best chance of the first period for Costa Rica when he ran on to Gamboa's cut back but shot wide from eight metres out.

The result means Brazil have avoided the ignominy of equalling their longest winless run at the World Cup.

Russian police said early on Wednesday they had received multiple bomb threats in the World Cup host city of Rostov-on-Don, causing bars and restaurants to be evacuated across the city.

"On June 26, police received a series of phone calls about explosives planted at locations in Rostov-on-Don," local police said in a statement.

"Police forces made all the necessary checks and no dangerous objects were found," the statement said. "Currently, all the venues are operating normally."

Increasingly isolated on the global stage, Russia is keen to use the World Cup to project an image of stability and strength. Authorities have vowed to host a safe event and any security incidents involving fans could jeopardise Moscow's efforts.

A policeman at the Topos Congress-Hotel in Rostov-on-Don, which was evacuated at around 2000 GMT on Tuesday, said 16 venues had been evacuated across the city as part of a drill.

On the other side of the city, a manager at the Luciano Italian restaurant said staff had been told to evacuate the building for around two hours after receiving a bomb threat.

"There was a phone call, an anonymous phone call, they said there was a bomb in the building," said the manager, who declined to give their name because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

A spokesman for soccer's world governing body FIFA was not immediately available for comment.

The Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, some 955 km (593 miles) south of Moscow, has so far hosted four matches in the World Cup, including Croatia's 2-1 win over Iceland earlier on Tuesday. The next scheduled match at the venue is on Monday.

The city is just a short distance from Russia's border with eastern Ukraine, where rebels backed by Moscow have been fighting Ukrainian troops since 2014, and its close proximity to the conflict had caused security concerns ahead of the tournament.

The Topos Congress-Hotel is listed as an official World Cup hotel by FIFA, but none of the competing teams are staying there, according to official documents.

Police at the scene said the hotel had been evacuated due to a bomb threat and sniffer dogs were seen entering the building, a Reuters witness said.

Security services were seen questioning people on the street outside the hotel, next to emergency vehicles and a crowd of around 60 evacuated guests who had not yet been allowed back into the building.

Russia was subject to a wave of hoax bomb threats last summer, causing disruption at businesses and public buildings in towns and cities across the country.

The Russian Federal Security Service said in October it had identified four Russian citizens behind the hoax campaign, who were living abroad and using internet phone services to call in the threats anonymously.

England coach Gareth Southgate was keeping his feet firmly on the ground after England's 6-1 World Cup group-stage rout of Panama, declaring "I didn't particularly like the performance".

With a grin Southgate explained to the BBC: "I'm being hyper-critical, but I didn't like the start, I didn't like the goal at the end. The bits in the middle were pretty good though!"

Southgate was speaking after a hat-trick from Harry Kane, a double from John Stones and another from Jesse Lingard saw off Panama and qualified England into the knockout stages.

As it stands England are level on goal difference with also-qualified Belgium but top the group by virtue of yellow cards -- two compared to the Belgians' three.

The countries meet in Kaliningrad on Thursday.

Asked about possible changes to his XI to face Belgium, Southgate commented: "I want to keep the momentum, we have to think about the team we want to put out, it's an opportunity for players who need a match who haven't played for a while but on the other hand we want to keep winning.

"It's a nice decision to have!"

Reflecting on a record World Cup win for England -- their previous best result was 3-0 -- he added: "I was a bit anxious at the start, they (Panama) had six at the back and three in middle, but once we worked that out I thought we played some really good stuff for 35 minutes.

Southgate's main gripe was his defence allowing Felipe Baloy to score Panama's first ever World Cup goal in the 78th minute.

"At half-time we talked about one more goal to be top of the group, that's why the goal at the end was disappointing," he said.

"We'd rather be in control of the group than not, and confidence wise it's important to score goals.

"It was a big moment for Lingard and great for the captain (Kane) to score a hat-trick, that way he didn't have the hump when I took him off!"