Four years after the disastrous performance at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, the Russian national team will have a chance to rehabilitate themselves at the home world championship. The cities in which the team of Stanislav Cherchesov will play the group stage matches are already known.
The Russian national team, as the host country of the world football championship, has already qualified for the main group stage of the tournament. According to the regulations of the championship, our team from the first draw basket went to Group A.
The rivals of the Russians in the group stage will be the national teams from the second, third and fourth pots. Moreover, among the rivals of the Russians may be very eminent teams. However, the home walls, as many football fans believe, can help our national team to reach the playoffs of the most prestigious and significant football tournament on the planet.
The first meeting at the World Cup, which is scheduled as an opening match, will be held by the Russian national team in Moscow on June 14, 2018. The restored Luzhniki will be filled to capacity, which should help the national team play with dignity against an opponent from the second basket.
The match of the second round of the group stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup for the Russian national team is scheduled for June 19. This time, the northern capital of our Motherland will host the hosts of the World Cup. The meeting will take place at the Krestovsky stadium in St. Petersburg.
The main football team of the country will play the final round of the group stage in Samara on June 25. The Samara-Arena stadium with a capacity of about 45 thousand people will become the main football field for our national team in the group stage, because it is in the last round that the future sporting fate of Cherchesov's team will most likely be decided.
Of course, all Russian fans want our team to perform on the fields of Kazan, Sochi or Nizhny Novgorod, because it is there that the matches of the eighth final and quarterfinal matches are planned. But returning to Moscow to Luzhniki, where the winner of the next football World Cup will be announced on July 15, 2018, may be the ultimate dream.
