RUSSIAN RHAPSODY

CR7'S TRADITIONAL WELCOME

Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo was treated to a traditional Russian welcome of bread and salt when he arrived with the national team in Moscow, much to the amusement of his teammates.

The Portugal team touched down at Zhukovsky airport on the outskirts of the Russian capital on Saturday, ready to complete their World Cup preparations at the Saturn training base in the Moscow region.

As the team were lined up in their team suits for a group picture, a girl in traditional Russian dress approached Ronaldo with a round tray containing bread and salt to practice the customary welcome. Initially bemused, Ronaldo broke off a portion of the loaf of bread and dipped it in the salt as teammates and officials could not contain their laughter at the Real Madrid winger's initial hesitation. Ronaldo finally bit into the bread before turning and laughing to manager Fernando Santos.

REAL RUMOURS RILE TITE

Brazil coach Tite angrily denied on Saturday that he had been in contact with Real Madrid over the possibility of replacing Zinedine Zidane, who resigned at the end of May.

“This is a disrespectful attitude and a lie," he said. "I haven't been in contact with anyone. Gilmar Veloz (Tite's agent) hasn't been in contact with anyone. I'm doing what I like and I'm in the best possible place; I'm in a place that any other professional would like to be. I value this enormously, and that's why I'm upset."

Hallgrimsson loses his bag

Iceland's football fairytale in the World Cup has had a comic start to its finals leg after manager Heimir Hallgrimsson delayed the team's departure for tournament host Russia when he put his bag on the wrong bus.

"I was trying to help things along, but put my bag on the wrong bus," Hallgrimsson said, explaining his bag ended up in the western Iceland town of Arkanes rather than at the Reykjavik airport. However, Hallgrimsson turned the bag faux-pas into a morale-booster with a round of coffees and a coach's joke as they waited. "This is our mistake for the trip, and at least the kit manager got a good laugh out of it," he said.