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#1 Russia lose the midfield battle
With the obvious potent threat that Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani posed, they were always going to be tightly marshalled by the Russian defence, so it was important for the Uruguayan midfield to step up.
Oscar Tabarez made the decision to start Rodrigo Bentancur a little further up the pitch, as he allowed Lucas Torreira and Nahitan Nandez to do the dirty work in midfield for La Celeste.
Cherchesov had, predictably, given his star man Golovin a day off. He was already on a yellow card, and Russia could not have risked a suspension for him in the Round of 16, where they're likely to face one of Spain or Portugal.
In Golovin's absence, the Russian midfield lacked any kind of bite. Yury Gazinsky and Roman Zobnin were often left chasing shadows, especially after Cheryshev was taken off, and the Russians could not really get out of their own half.
It was by design that Russia had a weakened midfield, but with the larger picture considered in Golovin's absence, the team had nothing in the middle of the pitch, and on his 21st birthday, Bentancur left them dancing to his merry tunes.
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