Host Russia battles Croatia for a spot in the 2018 World Cup semifinals on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. Croatia enters Saturday's quarterfinal at +125 on the money line, meaning you'd need to bet $100 on a Croatian victory to win $125. Russia is +275 (wager $100 to win $275), while a draw in regulation is +210. The over-under on total goals scored in this 2018 World Cup match is 2. After opening at 60-1, Croatia is now listed at 6-1 World Cup odds to win the entire tournament. Russia is 20-1 to win it all, the same as where it opened.
Before you lock in your 2018 World Cup picks for Russia vs. Croatia, you need to see what European football expert David Sumpter has to say. Sumpter is an applied mathematician who wrote "Soccermatics," a book that explains how math works inside the sport. Along with other experienced analysts, Sumpter developed the powerful Soccerbot model.
The Soccerbot reads current odds and all team performance data, calculates key metrics and predicts upcoming matches. In nearly three seasons since its inception, the Soccerbot is up an incredible 1,800 percent on bookmakers' closing odds.
The Soccerbot is absolutely destroying the World Cup knockout stage, correctly predicting draws for Spain-Russia (+280) and Croatia-Denmark (+225). Earlier, the model nailed draws for Argentina-Iceland (+385) and Brazil-Switzerland (+360) and predicted Iran upsetting Morocco at +275, just to name a few of its big calls. Anyone who has followed it is way up.
Now, the Soccerbot has crunched the numbers and broken down every single angle of Croatia vs. Russia. The model has released a very strong money-line pick, which it's sharing only over at SportsLine.
The model knows both teams prevailed in the round of 16 thanks to shootout victories over Spain and Denmark.
Russia and Croatia have met three times previously, with Croatia remaining unbeaten against the Russians. And Croatia was one of just three teams to win all three games in the group stage at the 2018 World Cup, scoring seven goals en route to wins over Argentina, Nigeria and Iceland.
Russia shocked the world by defeating Spain in a penalty shootout to advance to the quarterfinals. Russia entered the 2018 World Cup as the lowest ranked team in the tournament according to the FIFA World Rankings at No. 70. However, the Russians find themselves with a realistic chance to advance to the semifinals on their home soil. They'll have a raucous crowd behind them on Saturday and beyond if they advance.
Russia has put up plenty of goals at the World Cup 2018 so far. It blanked Saudi Arabia 5-0 in the opener and then beat Mo Salah and Egypt, 3-1. They've netted nine goals entering the quarterfinals.
So which nation wins Saturday? Visit SportsLine now to see the strong Croatia-Russia money-line pick, all from a European football expert whose powerful model is up 1,800 percent in less than three years.
