2018 FIFA World Cup results: Sunday 1st July Spain 1-1 Russia (After Extra Time, Russia win 4-3 on penalties) Croatia 1-1 Denmark (After Extra Time, Croatia win 3-2 on penalties) Round-up:
Day two of the knockout stages featured two all European affairs, both of which were tight, tense and rather scrappy, and both in the end were settled by penalty shoot-outs. In the day's earlier match, hosts Russia progressed to the quarter-final after beating Spain 4-3 on penalties. Spain took the lead on 12 minutes thanks to a rather unfortunate own goal from Sergey Ignasevich. Their lead was cancelled out four minutes before half-time thanks to a penalty from Artem Dzyuba after Gerard Pique handled in the penalty area. The score remained level till full-time, which meant the match went into 30 minutes of extra-time, but Spain just could not break down a stubborn Russia side, which meant the match went into a penalty shoot-out.
Spain went first, and Andres Iniesta converted. Fyodor Smolov converted for Russia to make it 1-1. Both Gerard Pique and Sergey Ignasevich converted the second penalty for Russia and Spain respectively, making it 2-2 at that point. Then the key moment in the shootout, Koke failed to convert his penalty for Spain, and Russia's Aleksandr Golovin made him pay by converting his spot kick, to make it 3-2 to Russia. Then both Sergio Ramos and Denis Cheryshev converted the next penalties for Spain and Russia respectively, at which point the score was 4-3 to Russia (in the penalty shoot-out), and, then Iago Aspas of Spain saw his penalty saved by Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev, sending hosts Russia to the quarter-final. In the later match, Croatia progressed to the quarter-finals thanks to a penalty shootout in what was a rather tight and tense affair. The game had an explosive start, with Denmark taking the lead after just 58 seconds thanks to Mathias 'Zanka' Jorgensen. Their lead did not last long, however, as Mario Mandzukic equalised for Croatia in the fourth minute of the match. That is how the match remained till full-time, which meant this match too went into extra-time. Croatia were handed a golden opportunity to win the match on 114 minutes as they were awarded a penalty after Zanka brought down Ante Rebic, but captain Luka Modric saw his spot kick saved by Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, and another penalty shoot-out followed. Denmark went first, however, key player Christian Eriksen failed to convert the first penalty thanks to a good save from Croatian goalkeeper Danijel Subasic, handing Croatia a potential advantage. Croatia, however, did not take advantage, as Milan Badelj too had his penalty saved. Simon Kjaer took Denmark's next penalty, and converted emphatically. Croatia levelled up with their next penalty thanks to Andrej Kramaric. Michael Krohn-Dehli converted the next penalty for Denmark, to make it 2-1 to Denmark. Luka Modric stepped up next for Croatia, and this time made no mistake from the spot, levelling it up to 2-2. Then Lasse Schöne had his penalty saved by Subasic, handing Croatia a potential advantage once again, but they failed to capitalise as Josip Pivaric saw his penalty saved by Schmeichel. Subasic produced another save when Nicolai Jorgensen stepped up for Denmark, and this time Croatia took full advantage as Ivan Rakitic scored the winning penalty for Croatia. Quarter-final: Russia v Croatia - Saturday 7th July - 8pm kick-off