FIFA World Cup 2018: 3 Reasons why Russia lost 3-0 to Uruguay

Uruguay secured top spot in Group A with a comfortable 3-0 win over hosts Russia, who were reduced to ten men, midway through the first half as Igor Smolnikov was given his marching orders for a second bookable offense.

Luis Suarez got Uruguay off to the perfect start, with a clever free-kick that wrong-footed Igor Akinfeev in the Russian goal. Uruguay's lead was doubled in the first half, with Diego Laxalt's left-footed drive deflecting off the unfortunate Denis Cheryshev to give Akinfeev no chance again. Edinson Cavani scored his first ever World Cup goal in a winning cause to round off the win late in the second half.

For Stanislav Cherchesov and Russia, it is back to the drawing board, but they will not be too concerned by this loss, having rested their midfield lynchpin Aleksandr Golovin and the veteran Yuri Zhirkov, having already secured qualification with two wins in their first two games.

We take a look at the three key factors that led to the Russians going down on a hot afternoon in Samara.

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#3 Igor Smolnikov's daft challenge to get sent off

Smolnikov had already been booked early in the first half on his World Cup debut, having come into the side to replace the rested Mario Fernandes at right-back.

At that stage, it was important for Smolnikov to keep his head and not rush into challenges against the talented Uruguayan attack.

But lose his head, is exactly what he did. Diego Laxalt picked up the ball and used his pace to bomb past the Russian, and he was silly to hit the floor and look to slide in to win the ball back. He only managed to catch Laxalt, and the referee had no hesitation but to send him off for a second bookable offence.

Against ten men, against the strength of Uruguay, it was always going to be an uphill task for Russia, and they could not break Uruguay down.

Rodrigo Bentancur led a confident Uruguayan midfield, that sprayed the ball around with ease, and didn't allow the Russians any time on the ball.

Smolnikov's sending off also meant that Russia had to sacrifice Cheryshev to shore up the defence, and that led to a further weakened midfield.

By the end, the Russians were exhausted having to run around with a man less, for more than an hour, in stifling conditions.

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#2 Poor set-pieces and crosses

Artem Dzyuba cut a lonely, frustrated figure for most of the game

Even before going down to ten men, and in the absence of Golovin, Artem Dzyuba's power and aerial ability were always going to be Russia's big weapons in this game.

But they barely fed him well enough, as they fluffed crosses from both wings. Aleksandr Samedov was the chief culprit, as he had several opportunities from set-pieces to test an Uruguayan defence sans Jose Maria Gimenez, but every single one of his set-pieces was overhit, and even a man as big as Dzyuba had no chance to attack those.

Diego Godin is generally a defender who wouldn't let his kids score in a backyard kick-about, so he was never going to be in the mood to back down today.

The physical battle between him and Dzyuba was absorbing for the most part of the contest, but in the end, the Russians just couldn't find Dzyuba often enough, for him to pose any kind of a threat to Fernando Muslera, who won his 100th cap in goal for Uruguay.

#1 Russia lose the midfield battle

Russia

were

given the runaround by Rodrigo Bentancur

With the obvious potent threat that Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani posed, they were always going to be tightly marshalled by the Russian defence, so it was important for the Uruguayan midfield to step up.

Oscar Tabarez made the decision to start Rodrigo Bentancur a little further up the pitch, as he allowed Lucas Torreira and Nahitan Nandez to do the dirty work in midfield for La Celeste.

Cherchesov had, predictably, given his star man Golovin a day off. He was already on a yellow card, and Russia could not have risked a suspension for him in the Round of 16, where they're likely to face one of Spain or Portugal.

In Golovin's absence, the Russian midfield lacked any kind of bite. Yury Gazinsky and Roman Zobnin were often left chasing shadows, especially after Cheryshev was taken off, and the Russians could not really get out of their own half.

It was by design that Russia had a weakened midfield, but with the larger picture considered in Golovin's absence, the team had nothing in the middle of the pitch, and on his 21st birthday, Bentancur left them dancing to his merry tunes.

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