Spain faces host Russia, hostile crowd

MOSCOW — For a team that fired its coach two days before its first World Cup match, Spain has quietly played its way into a fine position.

Sure, there have been questions about its defense and criticism from fans back home. But Spain still did enough to win its group, opening its campaign under new coach Fernando Hierro with a thrilling 3-3 draw against Portugal. La Roja followed that with a victory over Iran and then salvaged a draw against Morocco with an injury-time equalizer.

Three matches, six goals scored and five conceded: That was good enough to earn Spain a favorable matchup today with host Russia, which has already overachieved in the tournament, rather than robust Uruguay, which has only allowed one goal so far. The Spaniards also squeezed into the half of the draw that doesn’t include Brazil, France or Belgium.

Spain will have to deal with a hostile crowd at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, the historic and much-renovated venue where Russia opened the

World Cup with a 5-0 romp over Saudi Arabia.

“Luzhniki is my stadium,” Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov said.

But Russia looked overmatched against Uruguay amid similar friendly environs in Samara.

Hierro’s unexpected ascendancy to coach — after Julen Lopetegui was fired for taking a job with Real Madrid — has allowed the former national team star to build on an impressive World Cup history. He reached the World Cup quarterfinals twice in three appearances, and he scored five goals in the tournament, the last coming in a 2002 group-stage win over Paraguay. His 29 international goals for Spain rank fifth in national team history.

Goal-scoring glory aside, Hierro was no striker. He played defensive midfielder, and that’s the part of the field where Spain has been shaky.

“We need to improve. Every occasion against us is dangerous,” Hierro said. “If we want to go far in the World Cup, we have to make some adjustments. We have to recognize that this is not working.”

Long known for its defense, Spain didn’t give up a single goal in the knockout stage during its 2010 World Cup triumph.

Some of this year’s goals can be traced to individual mistakes — with goalkeeper David De Gea under particular scrutiny — rather than systemic breakdowns. Hierro has pledged to stick with De Gea, and attention to detail on the back end against Russia ought to be enough for a team of Spain’s superior talent.

Cherchesov has coached with a bravado that belies his team’s pedigree. He credited diligent preparation, along with “solidarity and cohesion,” for Russia’s 5-0 thrashing of Saudi Arabia and a 3-1 win over Egypt. After Russia fell to Uruguay, Cherchesov said his players simply failed to execute his plans to counteract Uruguay’s set pieces.

Croatia vs. Denmark

Both teams were unbeaten in group play, but Croatia was far more impressive.

Entering the tournament 20th in the FIFA rankings, Croatia has outscored its group opponents 7-1, including a 3-0 humiliation of Argentina. The only team to equalize against Croatia was Iceland on a 76thminute penalty in a match the group leader didn’t need to win.

Even so, coach Zlatko Dalic said he was “annoyed” by the misstep against Iceland. This Croatia team has high standards, as Denmark coach Age Hareide knows.

Asked to analyze his opponent in detail, Hareide smiled and shook his head: “Very good. It’s very good.”