QF July 7 Russia v. Croatia [R]

*crickets*

 

I have the impression Croatia will play as they always do.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Russia will play. It's perfectly normal that they played as the typical outsiders against Euro and World Champions Spain, but will they do the same against Croatia? Do they have a chance if they don't?
Despite of their success so far, I don't trust them much. The only russian player who really impressed me so far was Akinfeev.
On all their matches they haven't impressed me as a team either.
I imagine Croatia should score an early goal and it's "do svidaniya Rossiya".
I say 2-0 Hrvatska.

 

Russia 2-1

 

With all due respect, if Russia win this one I might start questioning the organization . I expect Croatia to win, and it should not be close.
I understand everything is possible on a single game but still, home advantage is not magic, a Russian victory would be an extraordinary upset in my opinion.

 

Croatia are overrated. 2 maybe 3 decent players.

 

Gotta give this one to Croatia. But please, no penalty shootouts this time.

 

I think Croatia do what Spain should have done and wins this at least by a couple of goals.

 

In.

 

Lol ok there pal. Let's see they have players playing in Real Madrid Barcelona Juventus Atletico Madrid Liverpool Intermilan I mean geez those are among the biggest clubs in world football. They played poorly against Denmark but advanced and slayed there long time demons in the process.

 

Denmark was a wall which only conceded 3 goals in the last 10 games, 4 of them ending as dull 0-0 (including the group game against France and a playoff qualifier against Ireland). This statistics page about Denmark says it all:
http://www.international-football.net/country?team=Denmark

Russia was a totally different beast, with a much weaker defence than Denmark, they simply had no other choice than to bunker down to face Spain's possession they simply couldn't match. Russia's statistics:
http://www.international-football.net/country?team=Russia

It's worth being noted that usually teams which qualified through shoot-outs suffer from it at next round. Since it's the case of both teams here, it's difficult to know which of both will suffer the most of it. Overall, I still believe Croatia should have the talent to win the game in 90 minutes this time.

 

Croatia win in Russia just not gonna happen.
They both Slavic countries, but 90% of the crowd in Nizhny Novgorod was outside watching the games on the TV sets outside of the stadium. Meaning barely any fans for Croatia.

Ref will be scared shitless into making any calls against Russia. That’s normal home field advantage. Pk for Russia. Then a counterattack goal for Russia. Final 2-0.

 

Croatia’s strength is its midfield. The wings and Mario are slow. Russia can just clog up the midfield and hope Mario can’t head one in.

 

What is scary about Russia is that they outran their opponents. They close down the gaps with a lot of effort. It's difficult to score against them in their backyard. You need more acceleration, tempo and directness to break them down. Spain was a perfect match up for Russia. Croatia is more direct than Spain but lacks the tempo other than Rebić. This one is close. Probably not a lot goals here.

 

Cannot argue with that. Only question is does the accumulation of matches start to affect Russia's ability to run and run and run? I'd guess not with the crowd urging them on. At least whilst they're level or ahead. Might affect them if they go behind. 0-0 all the way to penalties is surely likely.

 

I doubt Russia will strictly bunker against Croatia. You correctly mentioned why Russia would bunker against Spain, while I would add that their tactic in that regard was most definitely influenced by what they saw from Spain against Iran. But against Croatia, it will be difficult for the hosts to adopt the same posture. As hosts, they would come under criticism from their own fans if they played that way against Croatia, even if those fans would tolerate this posture against Spain.

I expect a balanced approach from the Russians, with a greater emphasis in particular trying to counter more often instead of having everyone behind the ball and focused on defending. Croatia isn't that skilled in terms of finding open space as Spain is and it will not require every Russian player to fill up the available space either. Their defense looks pretty good, though, so it will take the Russians at their best to carve out good chances against Croatia even trying. And the Croatian team is much taller and stronger than Spain in the air; the Russians won't necessarily be able to beat them from set pieces and corners the way they might have hoped to beat Spain.

Of course, if someone is having a brilliant day and taking shots that find the back of the net from a distance, things can easily look different. But I do see the likelihood of a scoreless match even without Russia strictly bunkering.

All in all, I give the edge to Croatia but since I expect a tight match, the bounce of the ball, luck and mistakes and errors are probably going to have the biggest influence over the final score.

 

I have a feeling this one could be a lot more entertaining than expected. Both teams scored freely in the group stages. Both will like their chances of going further.

 

I bought Sochi QF tickets long back thinking Argentina will top group D. Since then an unbelievable amount of water has flown under the bridge, it is not even a joke! My company for this QF is a Russian friend who was not at all interested in coming all the way to Sochi from his hometown St.Petersburg to watch Argentina but I bugged him to come along. Finally it turns out to be Russian QF and I am happy for my friend who is very excited that it all turned out this way. I hope they put up a good show to compensate for all the criticism they received during their match with Spain. But to be honest, Spain was dreadful to watch.

 

Rebic and Perisic are not slow at all in fact there pretty fast. Mandzukic yes is slow. Croatia won't be afraid of the Russian crowd. Quite a few players have played in champions league finals and also won a game in Ukraine in front of a hostile crowd 2-0 to keep there world cup hopes alive. Ref might make a difference though will see but Croatia will not be fazed by the crowd support.

 

Croatia will be much more direct in attack compared Spain. Whoever said they have no pace has never watched Perisic and Rebic play. Russia just plainly outworked Spain, but this Croatia side is as physical as they come.

 

I feel that Croatia plays very similarly to Uruguay actually. And Uruguay beat the Russians 3-0.

 

If Russia/Uruguay wasn't already played, maybe. While the score in that match flattered Uruguay, and the game was after both sides had clinched and weren't necessarily putting everything on line, the match nonetheless held lessons that the Russians will keep in mind. There will be some similarities, but I think the Russians will do better than they against Uruguay. Especially since, unlike losing to a country from western Europe or Latin America, losing at home to a small Balkan country from eastern Europe will be a difficult pill for the Russians to swallow.

Still, while I don't think the disparity is that great, Croatia is a better side than Russia and will have the edge overall. But not by much and the hosts should be able to counter that edge around 4 out of 10 times at home.

 

Russia had done a good job and so does Croatia. Hoping for Croatia to go through to semi final

 

Well the fact is Russia played with 10 men against Uruguay for much of the game. If they don't get an early red this game, they probably will be better than against Uruguay, but similar type of game.