Uruguay take on host nation Russia on Monday afternoon in Samara, with both countries safe in the knowledge that they’ve already qualified for the knockout stages.
The hosts won their opening two fixtures in convincing fashion, beating Saudi Arabia 5-0 in the first game of the tournament, before going on to beat Egypt 3-1 in their second match. Villarreal’s Denis Cheryshev has been their star performer in the tournament so far, scoring three goals, including two against Saudi Arabia, while there have been goals scored by others in their team too. Russia haven’t disgraced themselves at all so far and have defied expectations by qualifying for the knockout stage of the competition.
Uruguay were many people’s dark horse for the tournament, and, although they’ve won both their opening games, they’ve been fairly unconvincing doing so, winning 1-0 on both occasions. Luis Suarez found the back of the net against Saudi Arabia, but they had to wait until injury time to see off the threat of Egypt in their opener. They haven’t lived up to expectations so far and a loss to Russia on Monday would see them come second in the group, with a potential last 16 game against Spain or Portugal looming, which would only make it tougher for them.
Uruguay vs. Russia Predictions
This game is very difficult to call as both have won their opening games in very contrasting styles. A high-scoring draw seems a likely result, but, it could also end as a goalless draw with both teams playing out a dull affair.
Uruguay vs. Russia Betting Tips
- Draw at half time: 5/6
- Total goals under 1.5: 6/4
- Final score 3-3: 68/1
- Denis Cheryshev to score first or last: 9/2
Head to Head
- Russia have won six of their eight meetings against Uruguay (D1 L1, including games as the Soviet Union). However, both nations have a win apiece at W. Cup finals.
- Uruguay’s only previous win against Russia came in 1970, thanks to a 117th minute strike by Victor Esparrago.
- Russia have lost each of their last four W. Cup meetings with South American sides, scoring just once, including their 1970 W. Cup loss to Uruguay.
- Uruguay have won their last two W. 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 W. Cup (8) than they had in their previous two W. Cup tournaments combined (6, across 2002 and 2014).
- Each of the last three European host nations of a W. 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 W. 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 W. 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.
Uruguay Squad
Fernando Muslera (Galatasaray), Martin Silva (Vasco da Gama), Martin Campana (Independiente), Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid), Sebastian Coates (Sporting CP), Jose Maria Gimenez (Atletico Madrid), Maximiliano Pereira (Porto), Gaston Silva (Independiente), Martin Caceres (Lazio), Guillermo Varela (Penarol), Nahitan Nandez (Boca Juniors), Lucas Torreira (Sampdoria), Matias Vecino (Inter Milan), Federico Valverde (Real Madrid), Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus), Carlos Sanchez (Monterrey), Giorgian De Arrascaeta (Cruzeiro), Diego Laxalt (Genoa), Cristian Rodriguez (Penarol), Jonathan Urretaviscaya (Monterrey), Nicolas Lodeiro (Seattle Sounders), Gaston Ramirez (Sampdoria), Cristhian Stuani (Girona), Maximiliano Gomez (Celta Vigo), Edinson Cavani (PSG), Luis Suarez (Barcelona)
Russia Squad
Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Gabulov (Brugge), Andrei Lunev (Zenit St. Petersburg), Vladimir Granat (Rubin Kazan), Fedor Kudryashov (Rubin Kazan), Ilya Kutepov (Spartak Moscow), Andrey Semenov (Akhmat Grozny), Igor Smolnikov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Mario Fernandes (CSKA Moscow), Yuri Gazinskiy (Krasnodar), Alexander Golovkin (CSKA Moscow), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow), Alexander Erokhin (Zenit), Yuri Zhirkov (Zenit), Daler Kuzyaev (Zenit), Roman Zobnin (Spartak Moscow), Alexander Samedov (Spartak Moscow), Anton Miranchuk (Lokomotiv Moscow), Denis Cheryshev (Villarreal), Artem Dzyuba (Arsenal Tula), Alexei Miranchuk (Lokomotiv Moscow), Fyodor Smolov (Krasnodar)