World Cup 2018 Review: Russia - 3 Best Performers

Football: Russia vs Saudi Arabia at World Cup
Russia revels in the success of their team

#2 Igor Akinfeev

TOPSHOT-FBL-WC-2018-MATCH59-RUS-CRO
Kovacic shoots well, Akinfeev saves brilliantly

Except for that opening game against a rather dazed looking Saudi Arabia, Igor Akinfeev was a busy man throughout the tournament... and he lived up to the challenge every time. Against Spain, he was massive in the first 120 minutes - and simply out of this world in the penalty shoot-out... and the same was the case during Croatia's penalty-shootout.

His save off Matteo Kovacic was arguably the best penalty save of the tournament, and he was desperately unlucky to see Luka Modric's shot careen off his palm, onto the post, and spin back into his goal.

For a man who rarely gets the credit he deserves (having to keep in front of a porous CSKA defence against Champions League sides does you no good in the get-in-the-good-books-of-the-world-media department), this was a World Cup of quiet, irrepressible redemption.

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Edited by Amit Mishra
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