Russia hope for World Cup miracle as they face Spain

The hosts are hoping for a World Cup miracle on Sunday as the host nation take on 2010 winners Spain for a place in the quarter-finals.

Russia came into the tournament derided by their own supporters after a string of defeats in warm-up matches but they thrashed Saudi Arabia 5-0 in their opener and then swept aside Egypt 3-1, making even their own sceptical public believe in new possibilities.

A comprehensive defeat to Uruguay provided a reality check but Russia and striker Denis Cheryshev will be roared on by much of the 80,000 crowd in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and they see no reason to fear Andres Iniesta, Isco and Diego Costa.

"I think that we can win against anybody, we can always win and that's what we need to believe, just think about victory," Cheryshev said.

TRT World's Lance Santos, who is in Russia, reports the score on Sunday's showdown in Moscow may be closer than we think.

Spain's horrible history of playing against hosts

Spain midfielder David Silva said his side will be treating the match "as if we were playing against Brazil."

Spain have a terrible record against host nations at major finals — they never won in eight attempts. Minnows South Korea knocked out the Spain team on penalties in 2002.

"Statistics are made to be broken," Spain's coach Fernando Hierro said. 

"Why are we always looking backwards? We've had three games here but we're going to look at what happened 10 or 15 years ago? It's about what happens at 5:00 pm tomorrow."