WORLD CUP RUSSIA 2018 Hosts toast shock win
RUSSIA is in the midst of one of the all- time great World Cup parties, sending the vast country into pandemonium after plotting the tournament’s biggest shock.
A dramatic penalty shootout win over Spain after a 1- 1 draw consigned the 2010 champions to the World Cup scrapheap alongside fellow big guns Germany, Argentina and Portugal.
From Moscow to St Petersburg and many places in between across a nation of 11 different time zones, streets – like vodka – were overflowing with joyous fans while weddings were hijacked by football hysteria.
Victory sent the “Golden Eagles” into the quarter- finals for the first time since 1970, when they were the USSR.
And evoking memories of the great Lev Yashin – who won gold for the USSR at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and remains the only goalkeeper to win a Ballon d’Or – Russia keeper Igor Akinfeev’s stunning shootout saves were the vital difference, including an outstretched leg to deny Iago Aspas and secure victory.
“I’m not the man of the match. The man of the match is our team – and our fans,” Akinfeev said.
Unlike that golden era, there were no expectations on this “hopeless team”, as many locals dubbed them with the build- up to their opener against Saudi Arabia remarkably downbeat.
The lid has been well and truly blown open and a lasteight clash with Croatia awaits, with the latter exorcising ghosts of the past with their own shootout win over Denmark after that too finished 1- 1.
Real Madrid ace Luka Modric bravely stepped up in the shootout after Kasper Schmeichel had already saved his extra- time spot kick.
It was a significant moment for the emotional Croats, who were still scarred by the Euro 2008 shootout loss to Turkey.
Modric, Mario Mandzukic and Ivan Rakitic, who converted the winning spot kick, were among the remnants of that side.
Isco starred for Spain in Andres Iniesta’s last international, but they couldn’t unlock a five- man defensive wall, ending a turbulent World Cup that began when Julen Lopetegui was sacked two days before their opening game.
Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov revealed that he had one- on- one meetings with his players leading into the game to convince them that an ultra- defensive strategy was the only answer against Spain.
“I had to persuade ( my players) that this was the only way out,” Cherchesov said.
“We don’t like this kind of structure but this is what we had to do with three defenders. Thank God my footballers understood what I was telling them. They trusted me.
“Now it’s over and I’m thinking only about the next game.”