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Match Preview: Uruguay vs Russia, Group A, June 25

Host nation Russia faces its toughest matchup of the group stage on Monday, June 25th at 10am Eastern Time in Samara, Russia when it faces Uruguay. Russia is the favorite to win, according to our World Cup Betting odds, but only by the slightest of margins. What is sure is that Russia's offence has awoken in this tournament like none other. They have been a scoring machine, netting 8 goals in two games vs Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which are countries that pride themselves on stingy defense. Uruguay meanwhile has squeaked out victories, and while they have clearly been the better team in both matches, they still haven't been as convincing as Russia has been in their wins.

Uruguay

Coming into the World Cup tournament, Uruguay had recently won the 2018 China Cup after having finished second their qualifying group behind Brazil. Edinson Cavani led the entire region in scoring during qualifying with 10 goals, ahead of Leo Messi and Gabriel Jesus who each had 7. Thus Uruguay had as good a lead up to this World Cup as anyone could ask for. So while their first two games thus far in the cup have yielded positive results, they still don't feel like they reflect how good this team is versus weaker competition such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Luis Suarez in particular has been a little underwhelming and not as much as a presence as one would expect. Cavani is getting chances, but either through bad luck or imprecision can't seem to convert.

Russia

Russia qualified for the 2018 World Cup as the host nation, and almost immediately everyone counted them out due to the lack of success that they had been having in recent international competition. As hosts of the Confederations Cup last year, the only win they managed in that tournament was against New Zealand in the opener before dropping the next two games to Portugal and Mexico. They had also lost a number of friendly matches against France (1-3), Brazil (0-3), and Argentina (0-1).

Further, Russia's recent World Cup history hadn't been much to write home about either. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia had qualified for only three World Cup tournaments, in 1994, 2002 and 2014 and failed to make it out of the group stage in every attempt. With their two wins already in this tournament, they have guaranteed a knockout stage game for the first time in the Federation's history.

Match Overview

These two teams have met only one other time in history, a 2012 match that ended in a draw. That was back when the Russian national team was starting to gather attention from the soccer world after having won 15 straight matches and were considered dark horses to win the 2012 Euro competition. Much has changed since then, and while the Russians haven't had much success in the last couple years, they have certainly had success in the last few games and feature a budding star in Denis Cheryshev. On the other hand, Uruguay may not be Germany or Brazil in terms of overall depth, but they have talent up and down the roster and are always a force to be reckoned with.

The matchup will be interesting because there is actually something on the line for Uruguay, who were expected to be undefeated at this point. Russia meanwhile have had to prove themselves worthy of even participating in this World Cup, and have done so convincingly. The question is if they have raised their level to that of Uruguay, who was widely considered a much better team coming into this tournament.

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Group Phase