Cherchesov: Hierro has changed Spain's way of playing World Cup 2018 Russia coach was full of praise for his last 16 counterpart

World Cup hosts Russia face a challenging duel in the last 16 as they play against Spain and coach Stanislav Cherchesov is relishing the challenge.

Whilst Cherchesov would not go into the topic of Julen Lopetegui's dismissal, he did comment on the changes that have been made by Fernando Hierro.

"We can see that he's changed the way of playing, the players may be the same but their roles can change," he explained.

"In the case of various players, they have changed, you can see it clearly even after 20 minutes."

The coach also looked back to the past, when he came up against Spain coach Hierro on the pitch whilst a player for Spartak Moscow.

"I remember Fernando, he was a magnificent player and, now, a magnificent coach," he said.

That meeting came in the European Cup in 1991 when Hierro's Real Madrid knocked out the Russian side.

"Then and now the Spaniards were favourites, but as they say in Russia, nothing is impossible," he was quick to add.

"We have managed to do something no-one believed in, now we have the chance to repeat it."

The two sides met in November 2017 in Saint Petersburg in a 3-3 draw but Russia's side had a considerably different appearance then compared to now with only one player expected to play tomorrow from that line-up.

"We don't change because we wanted to, but because life made us, three players fell out [because of injury]," he said.

"We had to do something, now in the tournament we play with these changes and we've achieved some success."

When asked how he planned to stop Spain, Cherchesov did not want to go into detail but did not rule out a three man defence.

"Everything is possible, in training we've practiced both set-ups," the coach said. "I've spoken to many players, today we will have a chat, what's important is that what we do goes well.

"The Spanish are the team which have the ball most in the tournament from the statistical point of view."

After a thrashing with a much weakened side against Uruguay, Russia are ready to come back fighting for pride and keep their dreams of home success alive.