KNOCKOUT MATCH : SPAIN VS RUSSIA;;CROATIA VS DENMARK

After the battle between France and Argentina and Portugal and Uruguay,today we shall witness two of the high intensity pre quarter final matches of this FIFA world cup. One is Spain vs Russia and other one is Croatia vs Denmark...

SPAIN VS RUSSIA :  The host nation is going to take on the 2010 champions in their match of round of 16..Group B winners Spain hasn't showed that much impact in group matches but in other hand Russia has won two matches against Saudi Arabia and Egypt and scored 8 goals. Let's look at some stats ahead of the clash.

    HEAD TO HEAD : Russia has never beaten Spain since 1998(L4,D2). However in their last encounter Russia managed to earn a 3 - 3 draw in a friendly in November.
                                        But in major competitions like Euro 2004 and 2008 Spain has always overcome Russia. In 2004 Spain earned an 1-0 victory over Russia and in 2008 Russia lost to Spain in group stage(4-1) and in semi finals(3-0).
   

       KEY PLAYERS :
                                 1.SPAIN : Spain has a complete team full of star players..In defense there is Ramos and Pique. In midfield they have Busquets , Iniesta , Isco and in attack they have Diego Costa. Players like Asensio, Aspas, Nacho is also available as options.
                                  2.RUSSIA : Russia has the players like Artem Dzyuba ,Denis Cheryshev ,Aleksandr Golovin who have showed their talents in this world cup.
     
        PREVIOUS WORLD CUP : Both Spain and Russia were knocked out from the group stage in World Cup 2014

CROATIA VS DENMARK :  Croatian captain Luka Modric is very positive after his team won all the matches of group D. In other hand Denmark somehow managed the second place of group C(1W,2D). Let's look at some stats ahead of the clash.

     HEAD TO HEAD : Denmark has won two matches ,drew one and lost two matches against Croatia. In their last encounter Croatia beat Denmark in a friendly match(2-1).
     
     
      












KEY PLAYERS : 

                                 1.CROATIA : Croatia has players like Luka Modric , Ivan Rakitic , Mateo Kovacic in midfield and Mandzukic in attack. These players can change the game at any moment and they showed it against Argentina.
                                  2.DENMARK : Denmark has midfielders like Cristian Eriksen , Delaney who has the capacity to control the game .
     
        LAST WORLD CUP : Denmark failed to qualify for world cup 2014 and Croatia was knocked out from group stage.

PREDICTION : 
                       As of their 2018 world cup form Spain and Croatia has better chance to win...But Football is unpredictable.