Russia hope for World Cup miracle after Messi, Ronaldo exit

Russia's top scorer, midfielder Denis Cheryshev, attends a training session in Novogorsk, outside Moscow, on June 28, ahead of their Russia 2018 World Cup round of 16 match against Spain. [Photo/AFP]

Russia are hoping for a World Cup miracle on Sunday as the host nation take on 2010 winners Spain for a place in the quarter-finals after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi exited the tournament.

 Russia came into the tournament derided by their own supporters after a string of defeats in warmup matches but they thrashed Saudi Arabia 5-0 in their opener and then swept aside Egypt 3-1, making even their own sceptical public believe.

A comprehensive defeat to Uruguay provided a reality check but Russia and striker Denis Cheryshev will be roared on by much of the 80,000 crowd in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and they see no reason to fear Andres Iniesta, Isco and Diego Costa.

"I think that we can win against anybody, we can always win and that's what we need to believe, just think about victory," Cheryshev said.

Spain's top scorer, forward Diego Costa (L), warms up with teammates during a training session at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, on June 30, on the eve of their Russia 2018 World Cup round of 16 match against Russia. [Photo/AFP]

Spain midfielder David Silva said his side will be treating the match "as if we were playing against Brazil."

Spain have a terrible record against host nations at major finals -- they have never won in eight attempts and coach Fernando Hierro played when minnows South Korea knocked out his Spain team on penalties in 2002.

"Statistics are made to be broken," Hierro said. "Why are we always looking backwards? We've had three games here but we're going to look at what happened 10 or 15 years ago? It's about what happens at 5:00 pm tomorrow."

The other last-16 match pits a talented Croatia team led by Luka Modric that had a perfect record in the group phase against Denmark, but they will have to go some to emulate the drama of Saturday's first two last-16 matches.