On Monday, the final round of matches in the group stage begins, writes lrt.lt. In Group A - the only intrigue: will powerful Russians be able to maintain the first place in the standings. In Group B, where teams will play their final group matches in the evening, there are more intrigues - Iranian footballers still have a chance to advance to the next stage: they just need to defeat the Portuguese. They would also benefit from draws, but they would also need to wait for Spain's misfortune against Morocco.
S. Cherchesov: it's just the beginning
The head coach of the Russian national team, Stanislav Cherchesov, is daring. He stated that his team's qualification to the knockout rounds for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union is "just the beginning of their journey".
Such confidence from the coach should boost the team's spirits, as they are currently not demonstrating their best game, even though Uruguay, who has already qualified for the knockout stage, presents a tough opponent. This South American team has defeated both Saudi Arabia and Egypt with a 1-0 score, and now Russia is facing a sturdy defense from "La Celeste." In the opening match of the tournament, they even crushed Saudi Arabia with a 5-0 victory, and in the second match, they won 3-1 against Egypt.
However, it will be tougher now because S. Cherchesov also has to deal with a player dilemma - key players Aleksandr Golovin and Fedor Smolov already have one yellow card each, so another warning would prevent them from appearing in the next stage matches.
The fight is just for honor
In the other Group A matches, Saudi Arabia and Egypt will face each other only to fight for honor. The Asians were already crushed by the Russians 5-0 in the first match, and later lost 1-0 to Uruguay. The same scoreline was repeated against these South American representatives. The "Pharaohs" did not play well in those matches and later suffered a painful blow from the hosts - 3-1.
However, the African representatives have motivation - they aim for the first victory in the tournament's history, as both the 1934 and 1990 campaigns were very unsuccessful. By the way, the last goal from the game was scored back in 1934. Much is also expected from the team's leader, Mohamed Salah.
It is also interesting to see if goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary will appear in the matches held in Volgograd, as he could become the oldest player in the history of the World Cup. This Egyptian is 45 years old.
lrt.lt
