Earlier, graffiti portraits of three world class football players, Portugal's Cristiano Robaldo, Argentina's Lionel Messi and Brazil's Neymar, were painted in Kazan.

Mayor Ilsur Metshin noted an interesting coincidence on Saturday morning that teams of those players who were depicted in the murals had subsequently been knocked out of the tournament and this is why he jokingly proposed to paint a portrait of Modric in order to support Russia.

"Indeed, artists have started creating the Croatian player's portrait," a mayor's office representative said.

Russia will face Croatia in the quarter-finals in Sochi later on Saturday. Earlier, Portugal and Argentina were defeated by their last 16 opponents, Uruguay and France respectively, while Brazil lost to Belgium 2-1 in the quarter-finals on Friday.

According to the mayor's office, Modric's portrait will be painted near Messi's picture.