Broadcast info
Who's playing: An intriguing clash awaits as dark horses Croatia take on hosts Russia, who are still celebrating their shock win over Spain last weekend.
What time: Saturday, July 7th at 11:00 PST/14:00 EST/19:00 GMT/20:00 CET
What stadium: This game will be played at the Fisht Stadium, which seats up to 44.287 fans for the World Cup.
Which channel:
Match details, result and original broadcast info
This match has ended. Below are the original Live broadcast details for this match.
Live TV coverage and streaming in United States
Live TV coverage and streaming in United States
Match Facts & Stats
- Russia has never gotten to the quarter-finals as an independent nation from the USSR
- This is the team's first quarter-finals appearance (even as the USSR) since 1970
- Croatia, meanwhile is through to the quarter-finals for the first time since 1998...
- ...when they finished in third place
Preview
Hosts Russia continue to surprise everyone. Widely expected to crash out in the group stage, they managed to finish as runners-up to book their spot in the round of 16 for the first time. Given how they failed miserably when taking on Uruguay in their last group stage match, the overwhelming consensus was that Russia's deficiencies were brutally exposed by a superior opponent - meaning that the host nation was in for an absolutely torrid time when it came to taking on Spain.
And who could blame La Furia Roja for being confident? After all, Spain is ranked 10th in the world. Russia, meanwhile, is ranked 70th - even lower than Saudi Arabia, who they beat 5-0 on opening day. However, Spain is the team heading home, while Russia lives to fight another day. That's thanks to their stunning defeat of the 2010 World Cup champions on Saturday, and now the hosts have a chance at making it into the semi-finals if everything goes their way.
Interestingly, when Stanislav Cherchesov was appointed as head coach in 2016, he had one clear target: to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup. At the time, it seemed like an overly ambitious approach for a team who had never gotten out of the group stage as an independent nation. Could Russia's football executives have seen something most of us didn't? Perhaps.
But standing in Russia's way is none other than Croatia, who has had a fantastic tournament thus far. The Vatreni did have to beat Denmark on penalties, but Zlatko Dalic's side have been arguably among the biggest surprises of this tournament.
Croatia, who many view as "dark horses", is finally living up to that name. The team's stunning demolition of Argentina on matchday two further solidified its status as one to watch this summer. Will the Vatreni book their spot in the semi-finals at the expense of hosts Russia? Or will the home team pull off yet another upset to get to the semi-finals as their ambitious footballing leaders had hoped for two years ago?
