2018 World Cup: It’s Russia Vs Croatia In Q-finals

• As penalty drama lightens last 16 round matches

The superlative performance of Russian goalkeeper, Igor Akinfeev made him an instant national hero as the World Cup host dusted 2010 winners, Spain on penalties to set up a quarter-final clash against Croatia, which also survived their own spot-kick drama on Sunday against follow European campaigners, Denmark.

Though Fernando Hierro’s managed Spaniards completely dominated proceedings inside the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, with over 74 percent possession, they created few clear-cut chances and were sent to the cleaners when the expectations very quite high.

With his penalties’ stoppage against Koke and Iago Aspas, veteran goalkeeper Akinfeev pushed Russia to a 4-3 shootout victory that took them to the quarter-finals rounds for the first time since 1970, when they featured in the Mundial as USSR (the former Soviet Union).

As the rain descended heavily from the Russian skies, the outstanding victory sparked emotional scenes and wild jubilation in central Moscow, with the locals cheering, waving flags, blowing horns and yelling “Russ-i-a! Russ-i-a!! Russ-i-a!!!”

Interestingly, more penalty drama was still to come in the later match played inside Nizhny Novgorod, as Croatia bested Denmark 3-2 few minutes after the Danish goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel saved a penalty just before the end of extra-time.

In all, five spot-kicks were saved during the nail-biting shootout, two by Schmeichel and three by Croatia goalkeeper Danijel Subasic.

Within a minute of kick-off, Mathias Jorgensen gave Denmark the lead after just 58 seconds. The early goal was however cancelled out by Croatia’s point-man, Mario Mandzukic in the fourth minute and both sides remained locked at 1-1 until the end of extra time.

Russia remained the lowest-ranked nation in the on-going tournament at lowly 70th position on FIFA world ranking. Many soccer pundits did not give the Russians a passing chance to progress beyond the group stages but all that permutations have they now changed with the host nation propelling themselves into the quarter-finals round.

“We were hoping for penalties,” Akinfeev said after the match ended 1-1 in extra time, following a Sergei Ignashevich own goal and an assured Artem Dzyuba penalty.

“We are having a fantastic World Cup. Not just our fans, but the fans of other countries are getting a sense of this atmosphere and understood that Russians really know how to play football and want to play football.”

Russia came into the tournament derided by their own supporters after a string of defeats in warm-up matches but they thrashed Saudi Arabia 5-0 in their opener and then swept aside Egypt 3-1, making even their own sceptical public believe.

The result is a disaster for Spain, whose preparations for the World Cup were wrecked when their manager Julen Lopetegui was sacked on the eve of the tournament after he took the vacant Real Madrid coach’s job.

Spain shipped five goals in their three group matches and there were major questions over the form of goalkeeper David de Gea coming into the knockout phase.

Hierro rejected any suggestion the team would have fared better had the Spanish federation not decided to axe Lopetegui after arriving in Russia.

“We had opportunities to win this match but we ended up in a penalty shootout which is basically a lottery, and we weren’t lucky,” he said.

“I don’t think you can talk about the team breaking down or there being any sort of collapse,” the former Real Madrid captain said. “In football there’s a fine line between winning and losing.” – With agency reports