Russia Hits the Brackets with 3-1 Win over Egypt

It's good to be the host team.

Russia may be one of FIFA's lowest-ranked sides in this year's World Cup, but when its fellow Group A poolsters hit the list -- as of this moment -- at Nos 14, 45, and 67, Vlad the Lad and his merry countrymen couldn't have been dealt a better hand.

Because those numbers match up to Uruguay, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

Not exactly a gauntlet.

Except maybe Uruguay, which actually is a gauntlet all by itself.

 

Nestled cozily in St Petersburg, the Sbornaya -- in Cyrillic, it's Сборная, or National Team -- coasted right into the knockout rounds with a 3-1 result against a mightily disappointed Egypt.

The Pharaohs spell their nickname correctly, as opposed to a certain famous horse. Having said that, American Pharoah's spent more time in the winner's circle.

 

Not even the return of Mohamed Salah -- who missed Egypt's first-game loss against Uruguay -- was enough to avoid their second tourney defeat.

And that's despite the fact Salah that racked up a goal in this one.

 

It was a fitting first half, given the group.

Both sides seemed slightly -- being generous -- off-form, as they managed a whole one shot on target each for the entire 45 minutes.

 

As for the second half, Russia woke up first.

Their early goal came two minutes into it, after Roman Zobnin's long-range, off-target bouncer was redirected by Ahmed Fathi's unfortunate attempt at an interception.

Deflections by defenders rarely end well. Egyptian 'keeper Mohamed El Shenawy can attest to that:

 

Amazingly, this was already the fifth own goal in the competition, with two of them today.

Egypt seemed lost after this turn of events. Russia, conversely, played wisely in order to score their second and third.

In the 59th minute, Denis Cheryshev collected a nifty pass inside of the box and drove it home:

 

This was already his third goal in the tournament.

As to the third goal in this game, it came three minutes later from Artem Dzyuba, who easily slipped by one Egyptian defender to score the third:

 

By that time, the Egyptian mission seemed impossible. Losing this game would basically turn them into tourists, so they went into full-attack mode.

With the assistance of the Virtual Assistant Referee, Salah was able to get to the spot.

That's money:

 

That's also all she wrote for the Pharoahs.

Russia, meanwhile, continues to be a happy host.