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World Cup 2018 memes are all about Ronaldo, Ronaldo, Ronaldo

Bow down to the Portugal forward, who scored all three of his team's goals in Friday's match against rival Spain.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
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Gael Cooper

Three World Cup matches were played Friday, but if you limited your reading to Twitter, you might think there was only one match, and only one player. Legendary Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo dominated social-media memes just like he dominated his team's match against Spain, which ended in a 3-3 tie, with Ronaldo scoring all three of Portugal's goals. 

His final score was especially memorable, a beautiful free kick with just a few minutes remaining. The New York Times called the match "a draw for the ages, starring a player for all time."

Fans went a little crazy for Cristiano.

Some needled Spain goalkeeper David de Gea, with many comparing him to Liverpool keeper Loris Karius, who made two goal-allowing blunders against Real Madrid in the recent Champions League final.

And others wanted to debate whether Ronaldo or Argentina's Lionel Messi is Soccer's best player.

The memes and tweets for the Uruguay-Egypt match weren't nearly as emotional, despite a dramatic late goal by Jose Maria Gimenez to win it 1-0 for Uruguay.

In the other match, Iran claimed only its second-ever World Cup win, beating Morocco 1-0 on a heartbreaking own goal by Morocco's Aziz Bouhaddouz. Ouch!

Sure, a few other World Cup topics saw social-media buzz. Like this bear. Playing a vuvuzela.

World Cup action continues Saturday (6 am ET/3 am PT) with France taking on Australia in the first of four matches.