Russia provide another improbable surprise with elimination of Spain

Samara: No one’s laughing at Russia now.

Less than three weeks ago, the country’s national team, the lowest ranked in the World Cup and one that qualified for the tournament only because they were the host, were so pathetic a Russian politician proposed legislation that would fine anyone who made fun of the squad.

More than half the country got out their wallets and kept the punchlines coming.

Many of those same people on Sunday poured into the streets of Moscow, St Petersburg and Samara, waving flags, honking horns and blocking traffic after Russia beat Spain on penalty kicks to advance to the World Cup quarter-finals. Russia won 4-3 after the teams drew 1-1 through regulation and extra time.

A team that have one starter playing outside Russia’s domestic league have beaten one with players from some of the world’s biggest clubs. A team that had never made it out of the group stage are in the elite eight.

A team that had won two World Cup games before this year have beaten one that won the tournament eight years ago. And their coach, a burly, balding former goalkeeper named Stanislav Cherchesov who was tasked with getting the team to the semi-finals when he was hired two years ago, is now a win away from that goal.

Yet he refuses to take any of the credit.

“The man of the match,” Cherchesov said Sunday, “is the team and our fans.”

Sunday’s play closed with another penalty-kick shoot-out, the most maddening, frustrating and heart-stopping way for a knockout game to be decided. Croatia advanced 3-2 in penalty kicks over Denmark after the teams tied 1-1.

It would be presumptuous to call this the best World Cup ever with three rounds still to play. But it’s certainly the most confounding, most unpredictable and arguably the most exciting in a long time.

Three former champions — Argentina, Spain and Germany, who were shut out twice — already are out. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, the two best players of their generation, have left with their teams.

Coming into the year, no player had scored more international goals over the last four years than Poland’s Robert Lewandowski. He didn’t get on the score sheet in Russia, where nearly a quarter of the goals have come on own goals or penalty kicks, breaking World Cup records for both.

Japan got to the second round because they had fewer yellow cards than Senegal. Spain fired their coach days before their first game, while Japan’s coached his first competitive international game in his team’s World Cup opener.

How illogical has this World Cup been? Spain set a World Cup record with 1,029 completed passes on Sunday, more than 12 teams had completed in the entire three-game group stage, and lost. Spain had the ball 74 per cent of the time and outshot Russia 25-6 yet got their only score from an own goal.

That was by design, said Russia’s coach, who chose to have his team sit back and absorb pressure, hoping for a break or penalty kicks. They got the latter.

“Had we chosen a different tactic, we would not have fared as well,” said Cherchesov.

But first he had to convince his players. Did they want to continue being a laughing stock in front of their own fans or did they want to beat one of the Word Cup favourites?

“We had to persuade them this was the only way out. We don’t like this, but that’s what we had to do,” he said. “They trusted me.”

As a result, it’s now possible people will wake up for the World Cup final on July 15 — kind of a quadrennial Christmas Day for football fans — and be greeted by Russia versus Japan.

The World Cup was once Germany against Spain, Messi v Ronaldo. Now the most exciting tournament in recent memory could end with Denis Cheryshev facing Keisuke Honda.