Russia Shocks World Cup by Sending Spain Home
The Russian National Football team is supposed to be the lowest-ranked in the field during this year's FIFA World Cup. It's the same team that has surpassed all expectations when it booted out Spain, former world and European champion, bringing the country to the quarter finals for the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union.
There's also a new Russian national hero by Monday, July 2, as the country rose in celebration of Igor Akinfeev's unexpected penalty shootout victory over the lopsidedly favored Spain.
The Russian captain was, against all odds, able to save two spot-kicks to keep his country in contention during a tense penalty shootout situation that had both teams trying to win by bonus kicks while tied at 1–1, according to BBC.
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"Anyone can be a god if he tries," Stanislav Cherchesov, coach of Russia's World Cup team, shared a Russian saying with the media a day before Russia faced the feared Spanish team in the Round of 16 stage of the FIFA 2018 World Cup.
The stunning upset had the World Cup hosts eliminating Spain on penalty kicks, a long and drawn-out battle that lasted all throughout 90 minutes of regulation time, and then an extra half an hour on top of that. The two saves made by Akinfeev resulted in a 4–3 win for Russia, as he deflected Iago Aspas' fifth penalty kick for the day.
The Russian team would not have been in the improbable position of clawing out a penalty kick win if not for Artem Dzyuba, who was able to tie the score at 1–1 just before halftime with a penalty kick that his team badly needed.
"It's an incredible feeling," midfielder Aleksandr Golovin said, as quoted by the New York Times.
"To be honest, I do not even know what to do right now. We are in some kind of dream, a fairy tale," Golovin continued.
