From underdog to top dog

The Russians are coming

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Two wins, eight goals and almost certainly a place in the knockout stage for first time since the Soviet era.

Russia is enjoying quite the party at its own World Cup – and not even the highly anticipated return of Mohamed Salah could slow it down on Tuesday.

Confounding grim pre-tournament predictions, the host nation earned a second straight emphatic victory to start the group stage by beating Egypt 3-1. Having already routed Saudi Arabia 5-0, Russia is likely to be celebrating a spot in the round of 16 by Wednesday evening and few could have seen that happening so soon.

“It’s a group of solidarity and cohesion,” said Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov, who whipped up the crowd by waving his arms in delight on the field after the final whistle. “You mention difficulties, problems. We don’t like these words. We don’t have this in our vocabulary. We had some issues and we dealt with it.”

Like a string of pre-tournament injuries that ravaged the defense. Like a run of seven winless games heading into the tournament. The Russians started the World Cup as the lowest-ranked team at the tournament at No. 70, but they aren’t playing like it.

Three goals in a 15-minute span early in the second half did the damage against Egypt, with Ahmed Fathi poking the ball into his own net – the fifth own-goal of the tournament – to put Russia ahead in the 47th minute. Denis Cheryshev, with his third goal of the World Cup, and striker Artyom Dzyuba then scored in quick succession before Salah won.