World Cup 2018: Uruguay vs Russia prediction, team news and preview as the top two teams in Group A go head-to-head
Hosts Russia and Oscar Tabarez's Uruguay have both been beaten Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the group stages
URUGUAY and Russia will battle it out on Monday to determine the winner of Group A.
The World Cup hosts kicked off their campaign with a 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia and then they thumped Egypt 3-1.
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Tsar In The Making
JUVENTUS 20-year-old Rodrigo
is already a fixture in the Uruguayan midfield and coach Tabarez calls him “mature way beyond his years”.
He and Matias Vecino are the axis of a well-balanced engine room.
Star Men
DENIS Cheryshev has been a revelation since coming off the bench early in the opening game, three goals in 20 outings elevating him to national hero.
Uruguay’s success is largely based on defence, where everything revolves around Atletico Madrid rock Diego Godin, a man you would mess with on pain of hospitalisation.
Probable line-ups:
Uruguay: Fernando Muslera; Martin Caceres, Guillermo Valera, Diego Godin, Diego Laxalt; Carlos Sanchez, Lucas Torreira, Rodrigo Bentancur, Giorgian De Arrascaeta; Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani.
Russia: Igor Akinfeev; Mario Fernandes, Ilya Kutepov, Sergey Ignashevich, Yuri Zhirkov; Roman Zobnin, Yuri Gazinksy; Aleksandr Samedov, Aleksandr Golovin, Denis Cheryshev; Artem Dzyuba
Fact me
- Russia have won six of their eight meetings against Uruguay (D1 L1; includes games as the Soviet Union). However, both nations have a win apiece at World Cup finals.
- Uruguay’s only previous win against Russia came in World Cup 1970 thanks to a 117th minute strike by Victor Esparrago.
- Russia have lost each of their last four World Cup meetings with South American sides, scoring just once – including their 1970 World Cup loss to Uruguay.
- Uruguay have won their last two World Cup matches against European sides (England and Italy), having failed to win any of their previous 15 against them (W0 D6 L9).
- Russia have scored more goals in this World Cup (8) than they had in their previous two World Cup tournaments combined (6, across 2002 and 2014).
- Each of the last three European host nations of a World Cup prior to 2018 have won all three of their group stage games (Germany 2006, France 1998, Italy 1990).
- Russia have a positive goal difference of +7 in their opening two World Cup matches in the 2018 tournament. All three of the previous host nations to have a +5 goal difference or more in their opening two games of that World Cup have gone on to win the tournament: France (+7) in 1998, Italy (+6) in 1934 and Uruguay (+5) in 1930.
- Fernando Muslera could win his 100th cap for Uruguay in this match (currently on 99) and would become the seventh player to reach the landmark for La Celeste.
- Denis Cheryshev is Russia’s top scorer in the tournament with three goals – prior to their opener against Saudi Arabia, he had failed to find the net in 11 appearances for the national team.
- Russia have had four different scorers in the tournament so far (Gazinskiy, Cheryshev, Dzyuba and Golovin) – twice as many as they did in the entire 2014 edition in Brazil.