World Cup Bracket 2018: Results, Qualified Teams After Sunday's Knockout Play
Russia and Croatia joined France and Uruguay in the quarter-finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup on Sunday, beating Spain and Denmark, respectively.
Sunday's action wasn't of the highest quality, as both matches went to penalties.
Half of the quarter-finals have now been set, with four more matches to come. Here's a list of the qualified teams:
France
Uruguay
Russia
Croatia
Sunday's Scores
Russia 1-1 Spain (4-3 on penalties)
Croatia 1-1 Denmark (3-2 on penalties)
For the full bracket, click here.
While Saturday's two fixtures where thrilling affairs, Sunday's action didn't follow suit. Russia did provide one of the top upsets of the tournament so far, but the manner in which they did was hardly surprising and didn't make for great viewing.
The home fans hardly cared when Igor Akinfeev saved the final penalty on the shootout:
The goals in regulation both came off a Russian foot, as Sergei Ignashevich put the ball in his own net before Gerard Pique gave away a penalty, which Artem Dzyuba converted.
The penalty was a controversial one, as Pique had his back turned toward the ball and couldn't get his arm out of the way in time.
It gave him an unwanted national team record:
In the shootout, Koke was the first man to miss, and Iago Aspas also couldn't beat Akinfeev, who made a great save with his foot.
The hosts will face Croatia in the next round after they too beat their opponents via penalties. Danijel Subasic was the big hero with three stops―the same number as Kasper Schmeichel, who made one of his in regulation.
The win was long overdue for a talented Croatia side:
Mathias Jorgensen and Mario Mandzukic opened the scoring early, but the pace of the contest soon dropped after those two goals. While both sides had some half-chances, the first real moment of drama came in extra time, when Schmeichel denied Luka Modric from the penalty spot.
Christian Eriksen, Milan Badelj, Lasse Schone, Josip Pivaric and Nicolai Jorgensen would all follow suit, missing their penalties as well. Ivan Rakitic buried the last attempt, and Croatia advanced.
They'll be favoured to beat Russia in the quarter-finals.
