Spain vs Russia Preview

Spain is one of the many heavyweights who have not really impressed in this competition and it will be interesting to see how they perform against this Russian team that has been impressive so far.

Spain started their campaign with a thrilling 3-3 draw against Portugal with Diego Costa twice pulling them back from being a goal down before they took the lead 3-2, however, Cristiano Ronaldo scored his third of the night for Portugal to end the game in a draw

They beat Iran 1-0 in their next game with Diego Costa netting for them yet again.

Spain’s last game against already eliminated Morocco was a lot trickier and they almost lost it before scoring a late goal to end the game 2-2.

David de Gea is not having the best of competitions as he has conceded 6 goals in just three games and the Russians will fancy their chances of surprising La Roja here.

Russia are the lowest ranked team left in the competition and their pre-tournament form did not allow us to consider them a team that could book their place in the knockout round, so they have defied the odds to reach here.

The Russians started their campaign with a 5-0 bashing of Saudi Arabia.

They played Egypt in their next game and despite their first half ending goalless, they managed to beat the North Africans 3-1.

Their last group game was against Uruguay and they stood no chance against a side with good defence and an impressive attack – that game ended in a 3-0 loss for them.

The Russians are capable of springing surprises and with Spain’s defence not the most formidable, this game could go either way.

Spain are odds-on to progress to the quarterfinals however the hosts will have support and this should be an interesting game.

Possible starting lineups:

Spain

Russia

Results of each team’s last 5 matches across all leagues and competitions

Spain

LAST FIVE GAMES						DATE	COMPETITION
D	Spain		2-2		Morocco	25 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
W	Iran		0-1		Spain	20 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
D	Portugal		3-3		Spain	15 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
W	Tunisia		0-1		Spain	9 Jun, 2018	International Friendly
D	Spain		1-1		Switzerland	3 Jun, 2018	International Friendly

Russia

LAST FIVE GAMES						DATE	COMPETITION
L	Uruguay		3-0		Russia	25 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
W	Russia		3-1		Egypt	19 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
W	Russia		5-0		Saudi Arabia	14 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
D	Russia		1-1		Turkey	5 Jun, 2018	International Friendly
L	Austria		1-0		Russia	30 May, 2018	International Friendly

H2H