From a narrative perspective, the clash between Uruguay and tournament hosts Russia in Samara was the best way to finish Group A. Both on six points with two decisive victories each, each team’s fate was in their own hands and, while both were guaranteed to progress to the next round, the winner would take the group’s top spot, potentially allowing them to avoid a more difficult clash.

More so than that, the prior games had allowed the teams to develop their own particular styles that would be put to the test here; Russia were the unstoppable force, running wild over their opponents and scoring eight goals over the two games. Uruguay on the other hand were the immovable object, doing exactly enough to win, no more, no less, and then holding tight until the game was over. The only unknown was just how well these styles would transfer to opponents with more mettle than with Egypt or Saudi Arabia.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, it turned out that the force could be stopped and the object only appear immovable to the untrained eye; to those who know what they’re looking for, Uruguay are simply a team good at hiding their true power level. The Russian fans, however, had no interest in that and turned the stadium into cauldron. It’s the kind of atmosphere that could crack a lesser team, and it did, as Russia seemed to be cracking early from the pressure to live up to their fans. Sloppy early play forced midfielder Yury Gazinsky to make a rash challenge on Rodrigo Bentacur on the outside of their own box.

Russia’s defending was inexplicable. Too preoccupied with jostling for position, they left the whole left side of the goal open and Suarez smashed it in with barely any English on the ball. Judging by his body language, Igor Akinfeev had his view partially blocked by the wall but he would have needed bullet time to stop it anyway. Immediately Uruguay hug their back four and start playing a prevent defence. Once again, it’s the red from the med, Denis Cheryshev who is the most threatening, only without much of a team behind him, he’s regularly overpowered by Uruguay and their keeper, Fernando Muslera.

Given far too much room to manoeuvre, Uruguay responded with a counters whenever they could, eventually reaching the Russian goal and end up with a corner, which swung well wide and a snatched shot by Diego Laxalt should have gone for a goal kick – instead it bounced off Cheryshev and sneaked between Akinfeev and the post, making it 2-0. Russia were in pieces and Uruguay were in full control but their second goal could not have arrived in a more disheartening and undeserved way.

Barely half an hour in and Russia, playing in white, saw red. Down by two, one of which accidentally supplied by a countryman, Russia became too desperate too early and in the space of eight minutes, Igor Smolnikov hacked the Uruguayans twice, earning two yellows. Unlike Germany’s Jerome Boateng who took his red card without argument and left the pitch like a naughty schoolboy who knows he’s been caught, Smolnikov looked genuinely surprised; with his hands on his head and a wide-eyed expression, it was as if he had no recollection of either event. He may have been confused but manager Stanislav Cherchesov, well aware he was watching his team self-destruct in real time, took off Cheryshev and brought on right-back Mario Fernandes. In less than 45 minutes, the game was already over, now all he had to do was make sure it wasn’t a rout.

Luckily for Russia, Uruguay aren’t in the business of expending unnecessary effort and most of the second half was spent navigating 10 men and seeing what happened. The answer tended to come in the form of a free kick. Anton Dzyuba in particular made his tackles extra crunchy to make up for the lack of a complete outfield but nothing came of them; already in the clear, Uruguay only kicked the ball because the rules said they had to.

As the match wound down, Edinson Cavani appeared to get bored and start actively trying to get his first goal of the tournament. His strike partner, Luis Suarez, had no interest, however. Maybe it was because he already had his goal in this game (and beyond) but any time Cavani needed his help, he would mess it up, taking awkward first touches and sending crosses into space before jogging back into position with a look on his face that said he was already thinking about hitting the showers.

Eventually his desperation paid off and another Lucas Torriera corner paid off. Again, it paid off after a bit of labouring: A Diego Godin header bounced off Muslera and Cavani ran up and put his foot through it, banging it in from maybe a yard out. Somewhere in Germany, Miroslav Klose was smiling. Job done. Cavani subbed off and the clock wound down.

Heading into the round of 16, Russia look like easy prey for whoever they match up against. Uruguay, on the other hand, may never show their full strength but after achieving a flawless 5-0 run across all three group games, they may never need to – a shame because their potential is tantalizing.