POWER RANKING: The 23 best World Cup players after the first round of action

The 2018 FIFA World Cup has arrived.

The first round of group stage fixtures is already over, with every single one of the 32 World Cup nations competing at least once already — and boy, has the tournament created drama.

Russia got the World Cup off to a thrilling start when it wowed crowds with a 5-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in the curtain-raising game on June 14, before tournament favourites like Argentina and Brazil failed to register a win. Germany, the 2014 World Cup winners, even lost.

But who are the key players so far?

Business Insider has put together a power ranking of the 23 best soccer players in Russia so far in the tournament, using statistical data from number-crunching soccer site whoscored.com. The website grades players based on how the individual performs relative to his position, and ranks each player out of a maximum score of 10.

Keep scrolling to see who made the list, ranked by score in ascending order.

See Also:

• Senegal scored one of the most controversial goals of the World Cup when a player ran back onto a wide-open field after an injury

• Why England and other UK countries all have their own soccer teams

• Brazil's talisman striker was fouled more times than any World Cup player in 20 years in their first match

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