After eight goals in two matches, the atmosphere at the Samara stadium was expected to be a party atmosphere. The team though looked sluggish throughout and there was hardly any dynamism from the Russians. Whether the fact that they were missing their charismatic playmaker in the form of Aleksandr Golovin or if it was the stifling heat, one will never know.
But based on the evidence of the game, they will have to do much better. They did create chances with Artem Dzuba firing over the bar from inside the box and then Fedor Smelov, who shimmied his way beyond the Uruguay defence but failing to pick out a team-mate with his cross.
Understandably they weren’t aided by the fact that they were down to 10 men. Despite that their possession did improve towards the latter part of the game and one hopes that the Russians will show better resilience in their next tie.