Russia beat Czechs to set up Spain clash

Russia have beaten Czech Republic 3-0 at the Huamark Indoor Stadium in Bangkok to set up a mouth-watering quarter-final duel with Spain. The eastern Europeans were a class above their continental rivals and, as well as continuing their fine form from the group stage, extended to four matches their run of successive clean sheets. Sergey Skorovich’s side took a grip of the match from the first whistle and missed a succession of early chances, with Sergey Sergeev firing into the side-netting, Pula blasting over with the keeper stranded and Eder Lima hitting the post from close range. However, the Czech goal could only live a charmed life for so long, and in seven minutes Eder Lima opened the scoring his ninth goal of the tournament, popping up at the back post to finish off good approach play by Pavel Chistopolov and Alexander Fukin. Just three more minutes had elapsed when Pula finished off a similar move, which culminated in Sirilo crossing for his Dinamo Moscow team-mate to volley home. The worry at this stage was that the floodgates would opens but the Czechs, to their credit, regained their composure and even threatened on a couple of occasions at the other end as half-time approached. Russia always looked the more likely to add to the scoring though, and nine minutes into the second half they did just that. This time, Pula returned the favour to Sirilo, feeding his club and international colleague to curl a superb left-foot shot off inside of Libor Gercak’s right-hand post. From : Fifa