FIFA Wold Cup 2018: All you need to know about quarterfinals in Russia

Fifa World Cup 2018 has been one of the most exciting and unpredictable Football World Cups in recent past with pre-tournament favourites Germany, Argentina, Spain and Portugal crashing out of the competition after losing their respective games in Round of 16 or pre-quarterfinals. The round 8 or the quarterfinals of the Russia 2018 will start from Friday, June 6 after a break of two days.
 

The first match of the quarterfinals will be played on June 6 between Uruguay and France while the last match of Quarterfinals will be played between Russia and Croatia. 

Here's the full list of Fifa World Cup 2018 quarterfinals schedule: 

Match Date: June 6, Friday
 

1st match of June 6: France vs Uruguay

Match Time: 7:30 pm (IST), 4:00 pm (France Time), 10:30 am (Montevideo Time)

Match Venue: Samara

The first match of the quarterfinals will be played on June 6 between Uruguay and France. While France are touted as one of the favourites to lift the cup this time around, Uruguay have proved their mettle as cruised to the Quarters, defeating the likes of Portugal in the pre-quarters. The French on the other side have ousted Lionel Messi’s Argentina in a 4-3 thriller that saw the rise of Kylian Mbappe as a potential next-gen ‘G.O.A.T’. It will be exciting to see how Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann fare against Suarez and Cavani, undoubtedly the best strike pair of World Cup 2018.

Team France
 

France boost of exuberant young talents eager to show their skills on the world stage. The starting XI as well as the bench have some prodigious talents like N’golo Kante who single-handedly stopped Lionel Messi but they have faced fair amount of criticism during their group stage campaign. Didier Deschamps’ squad made a few amends when they outclassed Argentina in the Round of 16 (pre-quarterfinals) but the critics believe that the best is yet to come. 

23-member squad:

Goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda, Alphonse Areola.

Defenders: Layvin Kurzawa, Benjamin Mendy, Samuel Umtiti, Raphaël Varane, Lucas Hernandez, Benjamin Pavard, Adil Rami, Djibril Sidibé

Midfielders: Paul Pogba, Blaise Matuidi, Corentin Tolisso, N'Golo Kante, Steven Nzonzi.

Forwards: Kylian Mbappe, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Florian Thauvin, Thomas Lemar, Nabil Fekir.

Team Uruguay
 

The two-time World Cup champions have produced some stellar performances in their World Cup 2018 campaign, winning all the matches without conceding a single goal. While Cavani and Suarez hogged the limelight for obvious reasons, Captain Diego Godin have played an exceptional role in forming arguably the best back-line of this tournament. Although Edison Cavani limped off the field during the Portugal match and is racing against time to be fit for the Friday encounter, Oscar Tabarez’s men are confident to march into the Semifinals after defeating Les Bleus

23-member squad

Goalkeepers: Martin Campana, Fernando Muslera, Martin Silva.

Defenders: Martin Caceres, Sebastian Coates, Jose Maria Gimenez, Diego Godin, Maximiliano Pereira, Gaston Silva, Guillermo Varela.

Midfielders: Giorgian De Arrascaeta, Rodrigo Bentancur, Diego Laxalt, Nahitan Nandez, Cristian Rodriguez, Carlos Sanchez, Lucas Torreira, Matias Vecino.

Forwards: Edinson Cavani, Maximiliano Gomez, Luis Suarez, Cristhian Stuani, Jonathan Urretaviscaya. 

2nd Match of June 6: Brazil vs Belgium
 

Match Time: 11:30 pm (IST), 3:00 pm (BRT), 8:00 pm (Belgium Time)
 

Match Venue: Kazan Arena, Kazan

The second clash of June 6 is a mouth-watering draw between Brazil and Belgium. While both the teams are considered firm favourites to win the 21st World Cup, both the teams have faced a fair amount of criticism due to average performances at the finals stage.
 

Team Brazil

Brazil arrived at Russia boosting from a marauding qualifying results but the Selecaos failed to light up the World Cup with their trademark Samba. Although they have not lost any of their matches but the team have faced major criticism after drawing their first match with Switzerland and scraping last-minute winners against Costa Rica. The Brazilian ship steadied in the final group stage game against Serbia but their most expensive player, Neymar has faced severe criticism due to play-acting. The PSG player was booed by players and fans around the world but he has managed to silence his critics with a brilliant performance in the knockout match against Mexico. Brazil is slowly getting into their rhythm with the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Willian and Firmino playing out good football on pitch. The defence have also been rock solid with Thiago Silva and Miranda holding a good back line.  Right back Fagner and left back Filipe Luis also turned out some stellar performances in place of the first choice players Dani Alves and Marcelo, who are out with injuries. 

Goalkeepers: Alisson, Ederson, Cassio 

Defenders: Miranda, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Marcelo, Filipe Luis, Fagner, Pedro Geromel, Danilo 

Midfielders: Casemiro, Fernandinho, Paulinho, Renato Augusto, Philippe Coutinho, Willian, Fred

Forwards: Gabriel Jesus, Roberto Firmino, Douglas Costa, Neymar, Taison 

Team Belgium

Belgium National team

Belgium is one of the formidable sides of Fifa World Cup 2018 that sailed into the round 16 after winning all the froup stage matches but in the pre-quarterfinals, the Belgians scraped past Japan in the dying moments of a five-goal thriller at the Rostov Arena, completing a comeback from a two-goal deficit. Substitute Nacer Chadli scored in the 94th minute of injury time to overturn an imminent upset of the World Cup. The Red Devils nullified Japan's two-goal lead through Jan Vertonghen and Marouane Fellaini as their prolific scorer Lukaku failed to find the back of the net. Belgium have great talents in their ranks with the likes of Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne in the midfield and Vincent Kompany in the defence but a tough challenge awaits them as they head into Friday’s encounter.

23-member squad:

Goalkeepers: Thibaut Courtois, Koen Casteels, Simon Mignolet

Defenders: Toby Alderweireld, Dedryck Boyata, Laurent Ciman, Vincent Kompany, Thomas Meunier, Thomas Vermaelen, Jan Vertonghen

Midfielders: Nacer Chadli, Kevin De Bruyne, Mousa Dembele, Marouane Fellaini, Youri Tielemans, Axel Witsel

Forwards: Michy Batshuayi, Christian Benteke, Yannick Carrasco, Eden Hazard, Thorgan Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Dries Mertens

Match Date: June 7, Saturday
 

1st match of June 7: Sweden vs England
 

Match Time: 7:30 pm (IST), 4:00 pm (Sweden Time), 2:00 pm (GMT)
 

Match Venue: Samara

The weekend encounters will have Sweden lock horns against England. While Sweden managed a narrow victory against Switzerland, England came into the Quarters with Dier's sudden-death penalty shot that broke England's World Cup jinx.

Team Sweden: 
 

Sweden advance to the quarter-finals of Fifa World Cup 2018 after slugging out a narrow 1-0 win over Switzerland. Emil Forsberg, who has been brilliant in this tournament, scored the solitary goal of the match to take the Swedes into the last 8 for the first time since 1994. Sweden came into the last 16 from a group consisting the likes of Germany and Mexico. While they lost to Germany in the group stage but the Swedes have played out some fine team game in their wins against South Korea and Mexico. What they have lost in the individual brilliance of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, they appear to have gained in grit, determination and collective spirit and England will suffer a lot if they take the Blagults lightly when they face them on Saturday.

23-member squad:
 

Goalkeepers: Robin Olsen, Karl-Johan Johnsson, Kristoffer Nordfeldt 

Defenders: Mikael Lustig, Victor Nilsson-Lindelof, Andreas Granqvist, Martin Olsson, Ludwig Augustinsson, Filip Helander, Pontus Jansson, Emil Krafth 

Midfielders: Emil Forsberg, Albin Ekdal, Viktor Claesson, Gustav Svensson, Sebastian Larsson, Jimmy Durmaz, Oscar Hiljemark, Marcus Rohden 

Forwards: Marcus Berg, Ola Toivonen, John Guidetti, Isaac Kiese-Thelin

Team England: 
 

Harry Kane scores

For all the talk about England’s progress under Gareth Southgate, his youthful side have yet to be truly examined in this World Cup. England scraped through a win against a spirited Colombia in penalties after the 120 minutes of regular and additional time couldn't separate the two teams who played a haphazard game at a neck- break speed. At the end of the penalties in Moscow, England outscored Colombia 4-3, with Eric Dier steering a crisp low shot beyond David Ospina to break the age-old jinx. The win took England to the quarter-finals of the Fifa World Cup in Russia but their performances throughout have not been neat to be honest. Although England ride high on captain Harry Kane’s performance but they need to work a lot if they want to return home with the trophy. 

23-Member squad:

Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford, Jack Butland, Nick Pope 

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Danny Rose, Harry Maguire, Phil Jones, John Stones, Gary Cahill, Ashley Young 

Midfielders: Jordan Henderson, Eric Dier, Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard, Fabian Delph, Ruben Loftus-Cheek 

Forwards: Raheem Sterling, Jamie Vardy, Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Danny Welbeck 

2nd match of July 7: Russia vs Croatia

Match Time: 11:30 pm (IST), 9:00 pm (Russia Time), 8:00 pm (Croatia Time)

Match Venue: Sochi

Team Russia: Going forward
 

The hosts have been one of the revelations of Fifa World Cup 2018 with some crazy performances that saw Spain, the 2010 World Cup winners crash out of the tournament. Russia entered the tournament with a run of seven games without victory and at position 70 the worst-ranked of all the 32 teams - and amid grave concern that they would not even survive the group stage deemed easy with teams like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uruguay. However, they thrashed the Saudis 5-0 and beat Egypt 3-1 before being undeterred by a 3-0 loss against Uruguay to set up a meeting with the 2010 champions Spain which was won on penalties. Russia will look to keep the winning momentum in their favour as they will lock horns with formidable Croatia side in the quarterfinals.

23-Member squad:

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev, Vladimir Gabulov, Andrey Lunev 

Defenders: Vladimir Granat, Fedor Kudryashov, Ilya Kutepov, Andrey Semenov, Sergei Ignashevich, Mario Fernandes, Igor Smolnikov 

Midfielders: Yuri Gazinskiy, Alexsandr Golovin, Alan Dzagoev, Aleksandr Erokhin, Yuri Zhirkov, Daler Kuzyaev, Roman
Zobnin, Alexsandr Samedov, Anton Miranchuk, Denis Cheryshev

Forwards: Artem Dzyuba, Aleksey Miranchuk, Fedor Smolov 

Team Croatia: Going forward

Croatia started off their World Cup campaign with a 2-0 victory over a young Nigerian side with a goal from Luka Modric and an own goal by Etebo. In the second match, Croatia defeated Argentina, in a match that saw the might of the Croatian midfield, Argentina were handed a 3-0 humiliation by the Croats as Ante Rebic latched on poor miss kick from Willy Caballero to score Croatia's first goal while Luka Modric scored a wonder goal to double their lead and Ivan Rakitic added Croatia's third. The third match saw Croatia defeat Iceland 2-1 and finish as group D toppers. In the pre-quarter finals Croatia defeated Denmark in the penalties and look to fancy their chances in quarter-finals against Russia.

23-Member squad:

Goalkeepers: Danijel Subasic, Lovre Kalinic, Dominik Livakovic 

Defenders: Vedran Corluka, Domagoj Vida, Ivan Strinic, Dejan Lovren, Sime Vrsaljko, Josip Pivaric, Tin Jedvaj, Duje Caleta-Car 

Midfielders: Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic, Mateo Kovacic, Milan Badelj, Marcelo Brozovic, Filip Bradaric 

Forwards: Mario Mandzukic, Ivan Perisic, Nikola Kalinic, Andrej Kramaric, Marko Pjaca, Ante Rebic