Russia vs Croatia Preview

Russia has surprised everyone with their resilient performances in this competition so far.

The Russians have made it this far despite being the lowest ranked team when the competition began.

They started their campaign with a solid 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia and followed that up with a 3-1 win over Egypt which guaranteed their qualification to the next round.

They were beaten 3-0 by Uruguay in their last group game and ended up second which meant they had to play Spain.

The Spaniards took the lead but Russia equalized with a penalty and the teams needed a penalty shootout to separate them, which the Russians won in the end to set up this game.

Russia will have their home crowd behind them for this game so they will be expected by their fans to win the match.

Croatia have played themselves into the list of favourites after a good showing in their games so far.

They beat Nigeria 2-0 in their first match before thrashing Argentina 3-0 in their next.

They also beat Iceland 2-1 in their last group game to finish their group with a 100% record.

Croatia’s round of 16 game against Denmark was an interesting one as they went behind and equalized inside the opening 4 minutes.

Neither side could get a breakthrough again until penalties where Ivan Rakitic scored the winning penalty to set up this game.

Croatia are one of the few teams still remaining in this competition who still have a 100% record.

Although Russia have home advantage, bookmakers believe this will be the end of the road for them as Croatia are favourites to come out on top and progress to the semifinal.

Possible starting lineups:

Russia

Croatia

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

Russia

LAST FIVE GAMES						DATE	COMPETITION
W	Spain		1-1		Russia	1 Jul, 2018	FIFA World Cup
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

Croatia

LAST FIVE GAMES						DATE	COMPETITION
W	Croatia		1-1		Denmark	1 Jul, 2018	FIFA World Cup
W	Iceland		1-2		Croatia	26 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
W	Argentina		0-3		Croatia	21 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
W	Croatia		2-0		Nigeria	16 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
W	Croatia		2-1		Senegal	8 Jun, 2018	International Friendly

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