Saturday July 7th
Quarter final
England head to semiEngland 2 Sweden 0 (Samara) |
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Quarter final
Croatia end Russian fairy tale
Russia 1 Croatia 1 (2-2 aet - Croatia win on penalties) (Sochi) Hosts Russia were knocked out of the World Cup, losing to Croatia on penalties. In the 31st minute, Denis Cheryshef played a one-two with Dzyuba before unleashing a stunning left-footer high into the net to send the home crowd into party mode, but 9 minutes later, the mood was subdued when Mandzukic ran into the box and planted the ball onto the head of Andrej Kramaric who nodded in from the 6-yard line. On the hour-mark, Perisic took the ball down in the box, but his shot rolled off the inside of the post and across goal and the match headed for extra time. In the 100th minute, Domagoj Vida's header from a corner-kick bounced past a crowd of players and into the back of the net to give Croatia the lead, but in the 112th minute Subasic held onto a powerful volley from Kuzyaev and 3 minutes later a free-kick was delivered onto the head of Mario Fernandes who knocked in the equaliser for Russia to take the game to penalties. Subasic saved Smolov's poor penalty and Brozovic tucked away his spot-kick to give Croatia the edge, but with Dzagoev sending the keeper the wrong way and Akinfeev getting down to deny Kovacic at the post, the teams were level. Fernandes dragged his penalty wide and with Modric, Ignashevich, Vida and Kuzyaev all scoring, Rakitic sent the keeper the wrong way and ended Russia's participation in the competition. |
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