Ramos: It feels like we’re in a funeral parlour... we’re starting a World Cup, it’s time to smile

There have been some remarkable stories in the World Cup over the years but this one you really couldn’t make up.

In one corner last night, Sergio Ramos rallied Spain’s beleaguered troops at a press conference in Sochi by insisting ‘this is no funeral’ as his baffled teammates began life under a new coach with a match against Portugal to negotiate.

In the other, his own club Real Madrid defiantly staged the unveiling of their new manager – the one they had just snatched from under the feet of the Spanish Football Federation, leaving the national team’s World Cup hopes in tatters.