“According to the received data, every second Russian citizen aged from 12 to 64 plans to watch the 2018 World Cup (54 percent), with a quarter of the citizens still in doubt (30 percent),” the pollster said in a statement, adding that 87 percent of the respondents intend to watch the games of the Russian national squad.

Other national teams that are of particular interest to the Russian fans are Brazil (40 percent said they planned to watch their games), Germany (37 percent), England (21 percent), Spain (20 percent) and Argentina (16 percent). According to the respondents, these are the teams that have the most chances to make it into the semi-finals.

Brazil and Germany are most likely to win the World Cup (23 and 21 percent, respectively), while only 8 percent of the Russian fans believe that the country’s squad will reach the final, and only 6 percent believe Russia can win the tournament.

As many as 59 percent of respondents believe that the World Cup will have a positive impact on the host cities, in particular on infrastructure development (61 percent) and tourism (60 percent), and will improve the country’s image in the world (39 percent).

The online poll was conducted on May 11-20 among 1,002 respondents aged 12 to 64 and has a margin of error between 1.3 and 3 percent.

The World Cup will be held in Russia for the first time from June 14 to July 15, with the games set to take place in 11 cities - Moscow, Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi and Yekaterinburg.