German Football Legend Matthaus Praises Russia's Passion And Discipline At 2018 World Cup

The Russian national football team achieved success at the 2018 FIFA World Cup because it plays 'with passion and the discipline,' Germany's legendary footballer Lothar Matthaus told TASS on Wednesday.

MOSCOW,(APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Jul, 2018 ) :The Russian national football team achieved success at the 2018 FIFA World Cup because it plays 'with passion and the discipline,' Germany's legendary footballer Lothar Matthaus told TASS on Wednesday.

The Russian football squad successfully cleared the group stage as well as the round of Last 16 of the home football championship, and the team is now set to face in Sochi the players from Croatia in the quarterfinals stage match on July 7.

"I think each team has a chance to cross around and not only Russia against Croatia," Matthaus said in an interview with TASS commenting on chances of the Russian team in the quarterfinals game with Croatia. "Maybe Croatia has better players on paper, but Spain also had better players against Russia." "They (the Spanish players) were more experienced and of a higher quality, but Russia was playing with passion and the discipline," Matthaus, who was the captain of the German team to win the 1990 FIFA World Cup, said.

Speaking about the round of Last 16 match between Russia and Spain in Moscow on July 1, when the Russian team defeated the Spanish squad 4-3 on a penalty shootout (1-1 draw in the main time), Matthaus said the opening score of 1-0 "was nothing." "(The score) of one-zero is nothing," he said. "With one goal you can come back in the game.

They (the Spanish team) did not open the game after this 1-0 for Spain." "They (Russia) were keeping their system because they knew they would get the chance to score a goal and they scored this goal. Then, they did not give Spain a lot of chances," said the 57-year-old former German player, who played in a total of five editions of the FIFA World Cups (in 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1998).

"I think, that when the Russian team is playing like this, it is very different and very difficult for other teams to play against Russia," Matthaus added.

In all, 32 national football teams entered the 2018 FIFA World Cup and only 16 of them proceeded to the knockout phase after the group stage, which kicked off on June 14 and ended on June 28.

The national teams, which cleared the round of Last 16, are hosts Russia, Croatia, Uruguay, France, Brazil, Belgium, Sweden and England.

Russia is staging its first-ever FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Moscow with a spectacular opening show at the Luzhniki Stadium on the night of June 14.

The country selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.