Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Russia on brink of last 16 after knocking off Egypt
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA » Two wins, eight goals and almost certainly a place in the knockout stage for first time since the Soviet era.
Russia is enjoying quite the party at its own World Cup — and not even the highly anticipated return of Mohamed Salah could slow it down on Tuesday.
Confounding grim pre-tournament predictions, the host nation earned a second straight emphatic victory to start the group stage by beating Egypt 3-1. Having already routed Saudi Arabia 5-0, Russia is likely to be celebrating a spot in the round of 16 by Wednesday evening and few could have seen that happening so soon.
“It’s a group of solidarity and cohesion,” said Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov, who whipped up the crowd by waving his arms in delight on the field after the final whistle. “You mention difficulties, problems. We don’t like these words. We don’t have this in our vocabulary. We had some issues and we dealt with it.”
Like a string of pre-tournament injuries that ravaged the defense. Like a run of seven winless games heading into the tournament. The Russians started the World Cup as the lowestranked team at the tournament at No. 70, but they aren’t playing like it.
Three goals in a 15-minute span early in the second half did the damage against Egypt, with Ahmed Fathi poking the ball into his own net — the fifth own-goal of the tournament — to put Russia ahead in the 47th minute. Denis Cheryshev, with his third goal of the World Cup, and striker Artyom Dzyuba then scored in quick succession before Salah won and converted a consolation penalty in his first game back after 3½ weeks out with a shoulder injury.
Aside from his goal, Salah was quiet in his first match at a World Cup, much to the dismay of the Egypt fans who roared every time their star player’s face flashed up on the big screen and when his name was announced before kickoff. Not to mention the 90 million Egyptians back home. JAPAN 2, COLOMBIA 1 » Yuya Osako had a surprise in store for those who thought Shinji Okazaki’s lack of fitness left Japan little hope of competing with Colombia Oasko’s gritty determination to set up one goal and his 73rdminute header from Keisuke Honda’s corner kick lifted Japan to a surprising victory over the Colombians.
Osako won a bouncing ball to begin an early sequence that led to a penalty, put Colombia a man down and gave Japan a 1-0 lead when Shinji Kagawa converted from the spot.
Colombia had to play all but the opening minutes with 10 men after Carlos Sanchez received a red card for blocking Kagawa’s shot on goal with his extended right arm. SENEGAL 2, POLAND 1 » Senegal became the first African team to win at this year’s World Cup, defeating Poland on a first-half own-goal and a controversial second-half strike by Mbaye Niang.
Senegal, back in the tournament for the first time since 2002, went ahead in the 37th minute when Thiago Cionek’s attempted block of Idrissa Gueye’s shot wrong-footed goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who was picked to start over fellow Arsenal castoff Lukasz Fabianski.
Then came an unusual goal. Niang had been off the field for treatment after Jan Bednarek stomped on a foot. Referee Nawaf Shukralla of Bahrain, a veteran of two World Cup matches in 2014, waved Niang to come back on the field just as Grzegorz Krychowiak lofted a backpass from the center circle to Szczesny.
Niang let it bounce twice, knocked the ball past the goalkeeper then sprinted to catch up as the ball bounced three more times, and he tapped it into the open net from about 8 yards.
Luis Suarez will make his 100th appearance for Uruguay when his national team faces Saudi Arabia in a make-or-break Group A game. Saudi Arabia is winless in the World Cup since 1994, and the team was routed 5-0 by host nation Russia in the opening game of the tournament. Saudi Arabia has finished last in group play in its last three World Cup appearances, has not won in its last 11 World Cup games and has failed to score in eight of the last 10. It did not have a single shot on target in the opener against Russia. That should make it an easier day for Suarez, who has 51 international goals and is Uruguay’s all-time top scorer.
SPAIN VS. IRAN
Spain began in disarray after the federation fired coach Julen Lopetegui just 48 hours before its opening match against Portugal. It didn’t seem to rattle the team, though, as Spain outplayed Portugal but ended in a 3-3 draw because of Ronaldo’s hat trick. Diego Costa scored twice for Spain to emerge as an early star of the World Cup, but goalkeeper David De Gea had a rough opener. He let a shot from Ronaldo slip through his fingers in a mediocre performance, but the team said he will start against Iran. Iran goes into the match at Kazan Arena leading Group B after its victory over Morocco and hopes its stingy defense keeps the team on track to advance to the next round. Iran arrived in Russia with the second best qualifying record in the world in the final stage of Asian play with nine victories in 10 games.