The Russian team experienced their first loss of the tournament, losing 0:3 to Uruguay. Luis Suarez opened scoring for Uruguay in the 10th minute and in the 23rd minute, Uruguay got a second off an own goal.
Russia was reduced to 10 men when Igor Smolnikov was shown a second yellow and matched off in the 36th minute. Following the sending off, the score remained the same until the 90th minute when Cavani scored Uruguay’s 3rd.
After the match, the Russian coach, Stanislav Cherchesov said “Even when we had ten people on the pitch, they were running hard and they wanted to attack more that’s why I brought on a substitute. Psychologically we are well prepared for the next games. I believe that we should come to some conclusions, during the training sessions: this is one thing and when you come to the pitch to play the game it’s another. This is an art to be prepared at any second.”
Uruguay’s coach, Oscar Tabarez was happy with his team’s play. He
“Russia did not push us around, they tried to put us into a corner. Not only did we prevent them from doing that, but we put them in their half of the pitch in the first half. We could have won by even more goals. We did not manage to score on certain counter-attacks that we should have. Sometimes the timing wasn’t perfect. We need to improve very quickly, because any match in the round of 16 will be extremely difficult.
“The result and to be top of our group pleased me most. We won by a wide margin but I like the fact that we didn’t concede. We need to work towards that end. And I liked the dedication and concentration that my team had. They were focused from end to end, the entire squad. They executed the plan that we worked towards and which we all agreed.
“For me the holy grail of football is the word: balance. When we attack we need to be able to attack, but it doesn’t come from an abstract suggestion. Whenever there is an attack it is because ball possession has been recovered or we have defended well on an opponent’s attack. We work on balance all of the time.”
Uruguay and Russia will now move on to the next round, with Uruguay topping the group with 9 points and Russia coming second with 6 points.