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FIFA WORLD CUP 2018: Spain v Russia

FIFA WORLD CUP 2018 – Spain vs Russia PREVIEW


The hosts are back in action and they have a daunting task against one of the favourites Spain. This is Russia’s first knockout game at major tournament since 2008 against.. You guessed it, Spain. They will look to write the wrongs of that semi final in the euros in 2008 and with the whole nation behind them they have to believe. Meanwhile Spain are looking to take one more step towards the Final. Spain have not looked great and they’ll have to overcome a team with the whole nation behind them. Will Spain finally get it together or will the hosts pull of a shock and make the whole nation believe that this is really possible?


SPAIN


It’s been an up and down campaign so far for Spain. They topped the Group B but it took a late minute goal from both Spain and Iran in the other game to top that group. Spain have played Portugal, Iran and Morocco so far in this tournament. In the first game Spain drew 3-3 with Portugal in one of the most entertaining games of the tournament, if not for Ronaldo’s heroics they’d have won, they looked great going forward and it just was a good performance overall, just very unlucky not to win. However from then on, Spain’s performances have gotten worse rather than getting better. Against Iran they scraped out a 1-0 win, they were nearly punished towards the end of the game but held Iran off eventually. In the final game, we saw the worst Spanish performance of the tournament. They needed a late goal to save themselves against an already eliminated Morocco to salvage a 2-2 draw which was a poor result. Going forward, Spain have looked really good in these games, 7 goals in 3 games. Standout players would have to be Isco and Costa. Isco overall has just been phenomenal all around while Costa has been their top scorer with 3. However, Spain have not defender well. On paper they have one of the best backlines, but it just haven’t worked out like that. They got destroyed by Ronaldo, then against Iran they were pretty shaky, could’ve conceded a goal or two if Iran had better chance conversion and finally 2 goals conceded against Morocco. To summarise, Spain have looked good going forward, but defensively it’s been lackluster and overall they’ll have to improve to win the world cup. Coming up against Russia, they can’t look like they did against Morocco or Iran because they could get beaten.


RUSSIA


It’s been a fantastic world cup run so far for the hosts who will be looking for more. Labelled as underdogs to advance and with the nation not having any expectations, Russia responded with two dominant wins in 3 games and advancing to the next round. Russia may have lost some momentum after their last game against Uruguay, but we sure as hell expect them to leave it their all behind a now what is a hopeful nation in attempt to shock one of the best teams in the world. Russia opened up their campaign with fireworks scoring 5 goals against Saudi Arabia beating them 5-0, then they kept it up by taking care of Egypt 3-1. They scored 8 goals in two games to start off the world cup, however in their final game Russia did lose 3-0 to Uruguay. You can say they got unlucky in that game, a free kick goal, a deflection and a tap in from a corner, plus Russia rested some key players including star man Golovin and they played with 10 men for 2/3 of the game. That loss may have stopped the momentum a little bit, but we’re sure that Russia will look at the two games they won with their main stars playing as motivation that gives them belief they can beat Spain. It was an entertaining campaign for Russia, their attack has been fantastic. Golovin and Cheryshev have been on the top of their game plus striker Dzyuba has been a massive problem for defenders with his height, hold up play and attacking every ball delivered into the box. Defensively Russia have been okay, they didn’t let Saudi Arabia create much, nor did Egypt create much however Uruguay did break their defence down a lot more so if you’re Russia knowing that you’re coming up against one of the most lethal attacks you have to make sure your defence is on top of their game against Spain.


Keys/Tactics


This is a game where we’ll see Spain dominate the possession. Almost everytime that Spain play they tend to have about 60-70% possession because their midfield play is that dominant. Russia know that Spain have a much better team so the best way to beat them is counter attacking football since we all know that if Russia start committing bodies forward they’d get carved open. If Russia want to win the main man Golovin alongside Cheryshev have to provide lots of creativity and their striker Dzyuba must make it as uncomfortable as possible for Ramos and Pique given his height. Defensively, Russia have to be concentrating at all times as Spain have the midfield that could punish you with one blink of an eye. Russia cannot allow Spain to get an early goal because that will put the pressure on Russians to attack and it could get ugly real quick. Conceding early would be suicidal. Home support is going to be a huge key for Russia, the crowd should give them the confidence they need to go out there and shock Spain whereas for Spain they need to block that out, they do have the experienced players so you’d expect this not to be a problem for Spain. As for Spain, they have to do much better defending because if they continue to look poorly at the back, Russia will punish them since Morocco did so and Iran nearly did it. Going forward, the keys are obvious for Spain, just wait until a chance occurs, pass the ball quickly, spread Russia’s defence out and that’s how they get chances. It won’t be an easy match for Spain. As for Russia it will be an extremely tough task but hey you never know with football, we’ve seen shocks at this tournament already *cough cough Korea-Germany.


Prediction


We expect Spain to win this game. Spain are clearly the better side, they’ll dominate and it’s just tough to see them losing this early in the competition. Russia will make it tough no doubt with the crowd behind them but we saw how they performed against Uruguay. Sure it wasn’t Russia’s best team and they got a little unlucky in that game but the fact that as soon as they ran into a top opponent they got beat comfortably. Now coming up against, holding out that attack is going to be immensely tough, Russia’s defence isn’t that good anyway, they’ve got a few ageing defenders like Ignasevich and Zhirkov and that will get punished against this type of opposition. Spain haven’t looked the best themselves, but they have the players who can change all of that in an instance. Spain simply have too many game changers for Russia to handle. It will be a good game, entertaining one and we’ll see goals. However we won’t see a surprise here. Spain to win 3-1.




ODDS – Decimal


Spain Win (90 mins) – 1.61


Draw (90 mins) – 3.90


Russia Win (90 mins) – 6.50




To Qualify – Spain 1.25 – Russia 3.75



KICK OFF – 1st July 2018 – 3pm UK Time

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