From Russia, with love

All sorts of questions hovered over the notion of staging a World Cup in Russia.

The soccer universe worried endlessly about security.

There were serious concerns about the facilities, and whether they would match the standard of play.

And what about accommodations for the thousands of fans swarming into this locked-down nation?

No one, however, paid a whit of attention to the Russian team itself — a hideous 70th in FIFA rankings, and most likely only in the field because host countries get an automatic bid.

That has turned out to be a pretty dramatic oversight.

The Russians won two of three in the group stage of this tournament, but didn’t beat anyone of note.

Surely, the home team would be dispatched soon enough, with 2010 world champion Spain waiting in the round of 16.

Except ...

THIS WAS not the same Spain side that we’ve seen hog the ball for huge chunks of matches, and then strike with sudden movement and precise passes.

Some of the familiar names were there, but players like David Silva, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Gerard Pique have lost an awful lot of zip.

On top of everything else, the Spanish football federation changed managers just three days before the World Cup, bouncing Julen Lopetegui and throwing Fernando Hierro into the fire — hardly the perfect preparation for this golden generation’s last throw of the dice.

Still ...

Russia?

Things started to script in the Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday evening, when 39-year-old Russian defender Sergey Ignashevich turned a Spanish corner into his own net to put Spain up 1-0.

NORMALLY, chasing a deficit against Spain is fatal, and perhaps it should have been.

Spain had 75 percent of possession and took 26 shots, nine on net. Russia managed ZERO shots on target from the run of play.

But the veteran Pique suffered a brain freeze, and raised his arm to block a Russian cross in the box — handing the hosts a 41st-minute penalty shot which Artem Dzyuba dispatched past David De Gea.

Once Russia had achieved that 1-1 draw at halftime, the strategy was obvious — put all 11 men and half the population of Moscow behind the ball and dare the Spanish to find a way through.

Get the game to penalty kicks.

It worked, barely.

Iniesta hit the post with a low bullet near the end of regulation time, and Spain had a huge penalty shout when Pique and Sergio Ramos both were hauled down while trying to convert a corner.

No call.

A BIT of home cooking?

Maybe, but that’s how these crazy tournaments can go.

Ultimately, the weary Spanish converted only two of four penalty kicks at the end — Iago Aspas denied at the last with a flying kick save from Igor Akinfeev — and the Russian players went crazy in triumph.

So did most of the country.

You normally would think this must be Russia’s last bullet in the World Cup, its one shining moment.

Yet consider ...

Russia now faces Croatia, whose do-everything star Luka Modric is flat-out exhausted.

And then there’s this: Host countries have won the World Cup six times.

Maybe there was something besides security and facilities that the other 31 teams should have considered on their visit.

These “lowly” Russians can win soccer matches.

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Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press.

A Brand New Day appears Wednesday through Saturday each week. Steve’s sports column runs on Tuesday.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com.

Twitter:@BrandNewDayCDA