LEADING ODDS ON WINNERS OF 2018 WORLD CUP:
FRANCE
BRAZIL
ENGLAND
CROATIA, BELGIUM URUGUAY
RUSSIA, COLOMBIA the winners going on to face England or Colombia.
Colombia, whose best finish was their run to the quarter-finals in Brazil four years ago, take on the English in the last round-of-16 match later the same night in Moscow. The last addition to the elite group of 12 nations who have contested World Cup finals was Spain when they won the title for the first time in 2010.
France, the 1998 winners, beat Argentina to reach the quarterfinals on Saturday and are in the other half of the draw with fellow former champions Brazil and Uruguay, the three nations having competed in 11 finals between them.
Shortly after hosts Russia dramatically knocked Spain out of the World Cup at the Luzhniki Stadium here on Sunday, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov released a congratulatory statement for Stanislav Cherchesov’s team.
“Before the match, around noon, the president called the coach and wished him well,” he said.
The president had not come to the stadium but Peskov revealed that Vladimir Putin had followed the match on TV.
“Putin also noted that regardless of the outcome of the match, no one in our country was going to judge them,” he added.
The Kremlin had not revealed the reason behind Putin deciding against being at the ground. Did he have prior commitments? Or
MOSCOW: