World Cup 2018 in Russia: Big controversies with the hosts, innovation on behalf of VAR, France goes for gold!

The 2018 World Championship in Russia was the twenty-first World Championship in history. A total of eleven cities shared the actual hosting, which was subject to much criticism. As usual, unfortunately, this tournament had to do without the Czech national team. However, the non-advancement to the World Championships of Italy and the Netherlands was also a big shock. The gold medals were won by the French footballers. The national teams of Belgium and Croatia also achieved great results. Of course, this championship was not exempt from various political controversies.

For the first time in the history of the World Cup, the hosting fell into the lap of the Russian Federation. However, Russia, or rather the Soviet Union, had already bid to host the World Cup. Specifically, in 1990, but then it lost the battle to Italy, which hosted the championship.

Russian fans therefore had to wait until 2018, when the football world cup came to their country. The hosting reins were divided into eleven cities, with Moscow offering two stadiums – Luzhniki and Otkrytiye Arena.

The 2018 World Cup in Russia was hosted by the following cities, in addition to the aforementioned Moscow – St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Saransk, Volgograd, Rostov and last but not least Sochi.

It should be added, FIFA used one novelty at the World Cup in Russia, which the whole football world now knows as VAR.

The big controversy with the organisers

As is usual in World Cups, this World Cup was not without some political innuendo or controversy. In fact, in the case of the World Cup in Russia, the question even arises – where to start?

Some German politicians have demanded that FIFA take away Russia’s hosting of the event. The reason? The withdrawal of the hosting was to serve as an effective sanction for the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. But then FIFA president Sepp Blatter rejected this, saying that the hosting had been voted off and he was not going to discuss it further.

In addition to why the choice was controversial for Russia, the level of racism in Russian football, alleged human rights violations by the Russian authorities and discrimination against the LGBT community.

Russians have also faced accusations over alleged human rights abuses, something that FIFA president Gianni Infantino himself admitted in May 2017. And to make matters worse, there were also allegations of corruption and bribery in the voting of which country would host the 2018 World Cup.

We go into much more detail on these matters, plus the first use of the VAR system, in our above attached special. Thus, in case you are interested in these considerable controversies within the Russia 2018 World Cup, be sure to visit our special.

Qualifiers

A total of 210 teams participated in the qualification for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but only 32 of them could participate in the final tournament. Iceland qualified for the World Cup for the first time, as did Panama.

Four national teams then made a comeback. For the first time since 1990, Egypt took part in the World Cup. Senegal also made an appearance at the 2018 World Cup in Russia after a 16-year absence, while Morocco took part in the tournament for the first time since 1998.

The biggest comeback is clearly the participation of Peru, whose national team was last part of the World Cup in 1982! However, fans also experienced a big disappointment in the form of Italy and the Netherlands not qualifying.

EUROPE – Russia, Belgium, Germany, England, Spain, Poland, Iceland, Serbia, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Croatia, Sweden, Denmark

AMERICA – Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia, Panama, Peru

AFRICA – Nigeria, Egypt, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia

ASIA – Iran, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia

OCEANIA – Australia

Group stage

The group stage brought one not insignificant surprise and one truly huge shock. Poland failed to advance from Group H to the eight-finals, having earned only three points after three matches. It was in the group stage that they won 1:0 against Japan thanks to a goal by Jan Bednark.

However, the Poles lost their next two matches, namely against Colombia (0: 3) and Senegal (1: 2). Colombia took the win in Group H with six points, while Japan also secured promotion with four points. Senegal also finished ahead of the Polish national team with four points.

Group F came as a huge shock, with Germany failing to advance. As far as the other core groups are concerned, the way to put it is that each of them advanced who should have advanced. Group A, from which Saudi Arabia did not advance, offered a slight disappointment.

The same can be said of Group E in the form of Serbia’s failure to advance. So which countries were on the list of teams that made it through to the eighth round?

Uruguay, Russia, Spain, Portugal, France, Denmark, Croatia, Argentina, Brazil, Switzerland, Sweden, Mexico, Belgium, England, Colombia and Japan.

Knockout stage

Of course, we cover the entire 2018 World Cup in Russia in more detail in our special attached above.

Anyway, the eighth finals at this tournament offered truly evenly matched battles. Well, we can say that except for one. That was the match between Brazil and Mexico, which ended 2-0 after goals by Neymar and Roberto Firmino. Uruguay, another representative of the American continent, also advanced to the quarter-finals.

The latter beat Portugal 2-1 thanks to two goals from Edinson Cavani. France also went further after a wild game against Argentina, in which a total of 7 goals were scored. However, they secured their promotion by winning 4:3 after two goals from Mbappé, Pavard and Griezmann. Belgium beat Japan 3:2, while the Swedes won 1:0 against Switzerland.

Three matches had to be decided by penalties. But they did not bring any joy to the Spaniards, on the contrary. Russia was delighted to advance to the quarter-finals. Croatia eventually beat Denmark and England also beat Colombia on penalties.

The Russians and Croatians also reached the penalty shootout in the quarter-finals, and again Kramaric and co. were more successful. France made it through the duel with Uruguay without any major problems, and Belgium also played in the semi-finals at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Kevin De Bruyne scored the winning goal against Brazil. The last participant in the semi-finals was England, who got past Sweden.

The semi-finals of this tournament brought, as in the previous duels, very evenly matched battles. The first one was between France and Belgium. In the end, the duel between two great teams was better for the French (1::0), while Croatia defeated England in extra time. Mario Mandžukić scored the winning goal.

The bronze and gold medals followed, with the bronze deservedly going to the Belgians. The grand final between France and Croatia featured a total of six goals, but France won the battle for the gold by a wide margin. As we write above, we take a closer look at the 2018 World Cup in Russia in our special feature, where you will find many more details if you are interested.

Speaking of numbers…

As usual, 64 matches were played at this tournament, in which a total of 164 goals were scored (2.64 goals per game). Over three million spectators attended the World Cup, with Harry Kane being the top scorer with six goals. From a purely sporting point of view, it was a successful and attractive championship, even if it offered many controversies.

FIFA, ESPN