"I would like to thank the whole country for the support. We were playing for our fans. Emotions are overwhelming. We would love to continue this feast, this fairytale. It happened so that we lost. We wanted more," Cheryshev said.

He added that he initially wanted just to be named in the Russia squad and was really happy to have scored the goals that helped his team.

Cheryshev scored four goals in five World Cup matches and was Russia’s leading scorer in the tournament.

Russia lost 4-3 on penalties in the quarter-final match against Croatia and were eliminated from the tournament. The match finished 2-2 after extra time.