Russia – Mexico

Russia hosts Mexico in Kazan in a final third game from Group A of the Confederations Cup.

The home team needs to win at any cost, if they want to qualify for the 1/2-finals of the competition. Right now Russia are 3rd in the group with 3 points won, while Mexico are 1st with 4. In the other game Portugal are facing New Zealand and it’s expected that they are going to win without much trouble.

A draw would be enough for Mexico to qualify for the next round, but they also know that it’d be dangerous to play with such an idea in their mind. Mexico are usually a pretty much offensive team, so we do not expect to see them defending against Russia.

Russia on the other hand really need to improve, if they want to win and reach the final stages of the tournament. They know that anything, but a win will be fatal for them, so we expect to see them in attacking mode as well. But they should be careful of Mexico’s fast counter-attacks, which could lead to serious trouble for their defense.

After an attractive 2-2 draw against Portugal, Mexico gained a surprisingly difficult 2-1 win over New Zealand. New Zealand had a goal advantage during the halftime, but Mexico managed to overturn the game with second half goals by Raul Jimenez and Oribe Peralta.

Russia started the competition with a win over New Zealand, but in their second game they lost against the European champion Portugal after an early goal scored by Cristiano Ronaldo.

We have reasons to expect an attractive and interesting game between these two teams. Mexico are in a better position in the group and a draw would be enough for them to qualify. As for Russia, they need to win at any cost.