Football Results

The third match in the round of sixteen of this year's World Cup, the host of the final tournament, Russia, will in Moscow admeasure forces with the former world and European champion, Spain, so it is quite clear to whom the role of the absolute favourite belongs. However, the popular “Fury” has remained obliged to us in these group stage matches, with only one win and two draws, while on the other hand Russia has won the round of sixteen after two wins and one defeat. Additionally, this is the seventh match between Russia as an independent state, and in that period the Spaniards have made even four wins and only two games ended unresolved.

Spain

Of course, those previous duels suggest that the Spaniards are valid for big favourites in the round of sixteen, regardless of the fact that the Russians have great support from the stands of Luzhniki stadium. But, on the other hand, the “Fury” has several super-players who are already accustomed to playing in such an atmosphere, so the fact that they are playing against the host of the World Cup should not be too big a problem. However, in order to win this quarter-final match, the Spaniards must show much better game than in group stage matches, where only the Iranian team managed to win with 1-0, while Portugal and Morocco played unresolved.

And not only that, but in the final round against the already written off Morocco, they had to catch up with a minus of two goals, while those final 2-2 were set only in the 91st minute, when the reservist Aspas hit Morocco’s net. But as the result of the second match between Portugal and Iran went in their favour, the Spaniards eventually ended up first in their group, thanks to the fact that they scored more goals than the Portuguese. However, we have already said that they no longer have the right to do so, so they have to play maximally seriously against the hosts of the World Cup, while somewhat more offensive and faster Asensio should get the opportunity instead of Thiago in this match.

Probable lineups Spain: de Gea – Carvajal, Pique, Ramos, Alba – Busquets, Iniesta – Silva, Isco, Asensio – D.Costa

Russia

As for the hosts of this year's World Cup, they have already achieved their main goal with placement in the round of sixteen, so they can be much more relaxed in this knockout stage. However, their appetites grew slightly after the first two rounds when they made convincing victories over Saudi Arabia (5-0) and Egypt (3-1), to after which they were brutally mastered by the Uruguayans, who celebrated in that decisive match for the first place in the group with 3-0. However, the Russians suggest they say it might be a good that they were defeated in one game that did not have a big result importance, given that they now have enough time to address all of these shortcomings in this match with the favoured Spaniards .

However, no one expects that the Russians, even with great support from the stands, can do something more against the former world and European champions, but their coach Cherchesov does not share that opinion and he firmly believes that his choice of players has the sufficient quality to come to a new victory and placement in the quarterfinals of the World Cup. However, he is well aware that for such a thing they have to play one impeccable match, meaning even better than against Saudi Arabia and Egypt, even though they have scored eight goals in these matches. As for the situation with the team, the performance of the injured midfielder Dzagoev is still questionable, while defender Smolnikov has no right to perform due to two yellow cards.

Probable lineups Russia: Akinfeev – Fernandes, Kutepov, Ignashevich, Zhirkov – Gazinskiy, Zobnin – Samedov, Golovin, Cheryshev – Dzyuba

Verdict:

Even though the hosts of this World Cup will have great support from the stand of Luzhnik stadium, we still consider that a much more experienced and better team of Spain can without big problems win this duel in the round of sixteen, especially since they also have a lot of room for progress compared to those matches in the group stage.

Pick: Spain wins 1.62 - 62/100 @1XBet