Subašić is a hero, while Schmeichel is a wizard.
Russians were more than happy with their shocking victory against Spain, while on the other hand, they believed that Croatia would remain undefeated in its match with Denmark. Russian daily newspapers mostly celebrated the victory of their national team, glorifying it without any boundaries, even writing about the possibility of winning the World Cup. Still, some of them have also seriously analysed the victory of the Croatian national team against Denmark.
Komsomolskaya Pravda writes that, in addition to Russia and Croatia, England, Colombia and Brazil could also become the world champions since there is nothing which is impossible at the World Cup in Russia, adding that all the teams that are left in the tournament are good enough to win the finals in Moscow on 15 July.
Sport Express, a large-format sports newspapers (like Vjesnik used to look like in Croatia), brings a more detailed view of the World Cup. The front page is covered with a major headline URAAAAAAA! Clearly, this refers to the Russian victory, but on the sixth page, there is the headline “Schmeichel – Wizard. But Russia will play against Croatia”, with a lead that Croatia has won after a penalty shootout, with great performances from both goalkeepers. Journalist Andrej Kuzichev points out that, even after four victories against Nigeria, Argentina, Iceland (in which he says Croatia played with “the substitute team”) and Denmark, it is still too early to talk about perfection.
“The shooting began at the very start of the match, with panic in Croatian defence. Dalić said at a press conference that it was not necessary to rush things and that Croatia should wait for its chance, which was a very dangerous statement. After extra time and penalties, Rakitić took Croats to the next step and the match against Russia,” the journalist points out, saying that in Nizhny Novgorod chants were often heard: Russia, Russia. There was certainly more Russian fans who supported Croatia and were dressed in Croatian jerseys than those who supported Denmark.
Under the title “Subašić second in the World Cup history who manages to stop three penalties after extra time”, the internet portal eurosport.ru praises the Croatian goalkeeper and calls him a hero. The same portal also reports on Dalić’s analysis of the victory in which he said that the team for the next match would be set up as if Croatia was playing against the World Cup winners.
“We remained psychologically strong, we controlled the game and finally won. That is a result of hard work and that makes the win even sweeter. We did not play our best match and were not at such a high level as during the first three matches. But my faith in my players is even greater now. Subašić is a real hero today, he stopped three penalties, you will not see that every day. Every game is the most important for us and that is what I will tell my players before the match against Russia. I will tell them we are playing against the best team of the World Cup because we should approach every match as if it were the final,” reports europort.ru on Dalić’s words.
Croatia will play against Russia in Sochi on 7 July, at 9 pm local time. Since large crowds of Croatian and Russian fans are expected in this well-known Russian resort, many charter flights are already being organized since regular flights have long been sold out. According to unofficial information, tickets for the match can still be bought.
