On Sunday at 8am Eastern time in Luzhniki stadium, Russia, one of the surprise success of the 2018 World Cup, will take on Spain who is one of the favorites to win the whole tournament. According to our World Cup betting odds, Spain very much has the upper hand here, but Russia has posted some of the best offensive numbers out of all the teams at this tournament and this will be their first time in a knockout match at the World Cup since the breakup of the Soviet Union. These two countries have played each other 6 times (not counting the games vs the Soviet Union prior to 1991) and Spain has the upper hand, with 4 wins and 2 draws.
Spain
This team is one of the best in the entire tournament, both in terms of player personnel and team cohesiveness. Leading up to the World Cup and including the last 2 group games, Spain is unbeaten in the last 23 straight contests with 15 wins and 8 draws. Despite all the success, Spain did fire their manager Julen Lopetegui just prior to the World Cup, causing a bit of turmoil. His replacement, Fernando Hierro, has had to take over with little preparation, and while Spain did win their group, they did not do it in necessarily convincing fashion, tying both Portugal and, more surprisingly, Morocco.
That does not take away from the fact that Spain is loaded with talent all across the field, from Diego Costa up front to Sergio Ramos in the backfield, there is not one weakness on Spain's roster and they remain favorites to advance to the later stages.
Russia
Russia is perhaps the best story of the tournament so far. Expected to make fools of themselves as the lowest-ranked nation ever to host a World Cup, Russia turned a lot of heads as it outscored Saudi Arabia and Egypt by a combined score of 8-1 in its first two games. They came crashing back down to earth with a 3-0 loss to Uruguay in the third group game, conceding first place, but it feels like the seeds of success have been sown in this Russian team and they have a special feel to them. That's not to say that a win against Spain is in the books, but Russia certainly has a lot more going for it now than when it started the tournament.
Match Overview
There is no question that Spain is the better team in this matchup; in their last three games together, Spain has scored 10 goals against Russia. Regardless, Russia has seemed like a different team than it was in the months leading up to the tournament and Spain has yet to really do anything impressive. They were expected wallop Morocco and Iran, but instead squeaked out a win and a tie from the two. Meanwhile Russia is coming off a tough loss in their last game, but other than that have been a pleasant surprise. Denis Cheryshev has unexpectedly stood out with 3 goals so far, and Alexsander Golovin is proving that he is worth the hype that surrounded him leading up to the World Cup. It is still unlikely that Russia wins here, but if momentum is worth anything, it is certainly more with the hosts than with Spain for this matchup.
