World Cup: Uruguay defeats Russia 3-0

June 25 (UPI) -- Uruguay finished the group stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in the top spot of Group A after defeating Russia 3-0 on Monday at the Samara Arena.

The match at the 45,000-seat capacity Samara Arena had 41,970 fans in attendance.

The scoring was opened up by Uruguay in the 10th minute after Russian midfielder Yury Gazinsky was slapped with a yellow card for a tackle on Matias Vecino near the box of his goal.

Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez confidently executed a free-kick, curving the ball into the bottom right corner of the Russian net to put his team in a 1-0 lead over the hosts.

14 minutes later, the Uruguayans upped the score to 2-0 when a ball, kicked by midfielder Diego Laxalt, bounced off Denis Cheryshev's leg straight into his own net.

Uruguay could have scored another goal with Suarez getting an opportunity to go one-on-one with Igor Akenfeyev, but the Russian goalkeeper blocked the shot.

Moments later, Russia's Igor Smolnikov was booked for fouling Vecino. Shortly after receiving his first yellow card, Smolnikov received another one for chopping down Laxalt, and subsequently left his team and the field with the red card.

Being down to 10 players, Russia was forced to make an adjustment. Scoring midfielder Cheryshev was replaced with full back Mario Fernandes.

Although the referee decided for an additional two minutes, Russia did not respond and the opening half ended with Uruguay leading 2-0.

The opening 15 minutes of the second half saw the Uruguayans upping their possession of the ball. The Russians went on rare attacks and the players were looking to pass the ball to Artyom Dzyuba, but he was isolated up front by the Uruguayan defense.

The score of 2-0 remained unaltered until the end of the game. Uruguay's Edinson Cavani was quick to react in the Russian box and nailed it into the net after it ricocheted off Akenfeyev's hands in the last minute of the match to seal the 3-0 victory.

Both Russia and Uruguay already secured places in the next round of the global football championship, each enjoying wins over opponents in their two previous group stage matches.

Today's match was a decider on the winner of Group A, which also enrolled the teams from Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The next opponents for Russia and Uruguay will be decided later in the day in two fixtures of Group B.