Football World Cup 2018, Russi

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be held in Russia from June 14 to July 15, 2018. On December 2, 2010, Russia was awarded the hosting rights for the 21st edition of the FIFA World Cup.

The tournament will see 32 teams competing with each other. Of these, 31 teams have been determined through qualifying competitions, while one is the host of the tournament and has automatically qualified.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be held in 12 venues which are located in 11 cities. A total of 64 matches would be played between the various teams during the tournament. In an effort to save time, the organizers of the tournament have chosen all of the stadium venues, except one, in the European part of Russia. The venues where the matches will be held are the Luzhniki Stadium and the Otkrytiye Stadium in Moscow, the Saint Petersburg Stadium, Sochi, Kazan, Nizhny Novogrod, Samara, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg and Saransk.

The 32 teams will be divided into eight groups and each group will comprise four teams. The top two winners of each group will proceed to the next state of the tournament – Round of 16. This round will see the winners of one group playing against the runners up of the second group. For example, the winners of Group A will play against the runners-up of Group B, winners of group C against the runners-up of Group D, and so on. Round of 16 will begin on June 30.

The eight winners of the Round of 16 will proceed to the next state – the quarterfinals, which will be held on July 6 and 7. Of the eight that would compete against each other, four would proceed to the semifinals stage, which would be held on July 10 and 11. The two losing team will play for the Third-place pay-off on July 14, while the two winning teams will play in the finals of the tournament. The winning team would lift the World Cup at the finals, which would be held on July 15, 2018, at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.