Russia continued their excellent post-World Cup run thanks to some tremendous motivation, physical intensity and focus. Also key, the inspiration of their attackers: Golovin, Dzyuba and Cheryshev. Turkey, on the other hand, struggled to ‘click’ and display a well-defined offensive plan. The Russia of Stanislav Cherchesov has a relatively simple game plan. But it is […]

Poland tested Italy’s build-up with an interesting starting formation, determined to block off access to the center. Italy soon found a way around this, upon which Poland responded with an efficient formation change. This evened out the game but wasn’t enough to prevent Italy from snatching victory with an injury time winner. With Portugal leading […]