Now that the initial group stages are over, it’s time to get even deeper into the World Cup 2018 action with the round of 16 games. Whether your team has made it through or not, you’ll no doubt want to catch some of the action. The Spain v Russia game will see the hosts try to secure a quarter-final spot and will be played on July 1st in Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow at 3 PM BST (7 A PST/ 10 AM EST).
Chances are you’ll be looking to stream the action online and for free. Thankfully, there are a ton of options depending on where you’re located. And with broadcasters all over the world having rights to games, you can find streams in many different languages. However, most streams are geo-restricted, so if you’re outside of the source region, you’ll have trouble gaining access.
There’s a simple solution to that problem in the form of a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This will mask your real IP address and replace it with one from a country of your choice, spoofing your location. This will enable you to access streaming services from all over the world. You can watch Spain v Russia, Croatia v Denmark, and any other World Cup game from the UK, the US, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, or anywhere else in the world.
In this post, we’ll explain exactly how to watch Spain v Russia online with a free live stream of the game. We’ll focus on live streams from official broadcasters providing high quality HD or even 4k coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2018.
Where to stream the FIFA World Cup 2018 for free
In most countries, local broadcasters will have partial or full rights to air the FIFA World Cup 2018 matches. The commentary will vary depending on the source country. For English commentary, you have several options for free streams, including:
- US: Fox Sports (free with cable or over-the-top provider subscription)
- UK: BBC, ITV (both free)
- Canada: TSN, CTV (free with cable subscription)
- Australia: SBS’ The World Game website (free)
Since the US and Canada streams require an existing cable subscription, your best bet for a free stream is a UK or Australia broadcaster. Since you should have TV license for a UK stream — although this isn’t enforced — this leaves Australia’s SBS as the top choice for a free English-commentary stream.
This channel was originally showing a limited number of games, but now has rights to all remaining matchups. Games, including Spain v Russia and Croatia v Denmark, will be shown on the SBS TV channel and online through The World Game website. The content is geo-restricted so you will need an Australian IP address. If you’re not located in Australia, you can use a VPN (more on that below).
We’ll cover some if the best free streams for the major languages of the competing countries below. No matter what stream you want to watch, you should be able to access it by using a VPN.
The best VPN for the World Cup 2018: ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is our first choice for watching the World Cup fixtures for a host of reasons. Its vast server network spans 94 countries and all servers are optimized for speed. Plus, this provider is known for its ability to bypass geo-restrictions and enable access to popular streaming sites.
It scores highly on the security and privacy front with 256-bit AES encryption and no logs of personal data. It allows up to three simultaneous connections and offers apps for Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.
ExpressVPN is great for beginners and involves a quick and simple setup. Just choose a pln (one, six, or twelve months) and submit payment. 24/7 live chat customer support is reliable and knowledgeable, in case you run into any issues. Plans come with a 30-day no-fuss money-back guarantee, so you could watch the whole tournament and get your money back after viewing the final.
READER DEAL: You can get three months for free when you sign up for an ExpressVPN annual plan.
While ExpressVPN is our first choice, there are some other great options out there. NordVPN and CyberGhost are ideal for streaming and offer some excellent deals.
How to watch the Spain v Russia game with a VPN
Once you’ve settled on a VPN provider, here are the simple steps you need to take to stream the game:
- Sign up with your chosen VPN provider.
- Download the appropriate app for your device.
- Launch the desktop client or mobile app and log in.
- Select a server in the same region as your streaming source and connect.
- Access the stream through the source website or mobile app. You should be able to watch with no issues.
Though we always hope for a seamless experience, problems can arise, so it’s best to check the stream works well before the game starts.
How to watch Spain v Russia online with Spanish or Russian commentary
With so many Spanish-speaking countries around the world, you have a number of options for World Cup streams with Spanish commentary. In Spain, all games will be aired for free through Telecinco or Cuatro with Spanish commentary.
Meanwhile, in the US, Telemundo Deportes has rights to show all World Cup Games with Spanish commentary. Although, this requires login with a cable or over-the-top provider. Mexico, Argentina, and many other Spanish-speaking countries will have their own local streams, each accessible from within the respective country.
For Russian commentary, streams shouldn’t be too hard to come by. As the host country, Russia has numerous broadcasters covering the World Cup games: Perviy Kanal, VGTRK, and Match TV all have rights.
If you want to access any of these streams from outside the source region, you can use a VPN to spoof your location.
Streaming the FIFA World Cup 2018 games with English commentary
We briefly covered the English-commentary streaming options before, but we’ll discuss them in a bit more detail here.
UK World Cup streaming options
Residents of the UK are in luck as they can watch all games for free, on TV or online. The BBC and ITV are sharing rights, so each games will be shown on one channel or the other. The Spain v Russia game will be aired on BBC One and online through BBC iPlayer.
Although both services are free, they do require you to sign up and enter personal details including your postal code. This has to be a UK postal code to gain access, but it isn’t actually verified. Additionally, you should have a TV license, which most UK residents will have anyway. Again, this isn’t actually verified and is based on an honor system, so even if you’re outside the UK, both services are accessible. You just need to mask your IP address and replace it with a UK one using a VPN.
Both ITV and BBC offer English commentary.
US World Cup streaming options
Fox Sports has exclusive rights to show the World Cup matches with English commentary in the US. To get “free” access, you’ll need to have a subscription to a cable or over-the-top service. Examples of the latter include fuboTV, Sling TV, and DirecTV.
The other option is to fork out $19.99 for a soccer match pass. But before you do this, you might want to consider using a VPN to access a free non-US stream.
Canada World Cup streaming options
Canada has two channels providing English-commentary World Cup coverage: TSN and CTV. Both of these require an existing cable subscription, so are only technically free if you’re a Canadian resident and subscribe to a service like Rogers, Bell, or Cogeco.
TSN offers a monthly subscription for $24.99 per month, but at this point in the tournament, it might not be worth it.
If you’re in Canada without cable, using a VPN to access SBS’ The World Game streams might be a good option.
Australia World Cup streaming options
We just mentioned The World Game website, and indeed this is an excellent option for anyone in any part of the world. It’s especially simple for those located in Australia as you won’t even need to use a VPN to gain access.
There is a paid option in Australia, Optus Sport, but with The World Game website showing all remaining games, it probably doesn’t make any sense to sign up for a subscription now.
Free live streams in other languages
We’ve covered just a few languages in this post, but many more are catered to by various streaming services all over the world. There are a ton of free and paid options, depending on the language you want. Here are a few you might be interested in:
- Portuguese: RTP, SIC
- French: TF1
- German: ARD, ORF, SRG SSR, ZDF
- Italian: Mediaset
- Arabic: MAKAN 33, KAN11, BTV
- Bengali: BTV
If you want to access these streams outside of their respective source regions, you can spoof your location using a VPN. Before signing up with a provider, just make sure it has servers in the appropriate region and test the streams well before kickoff.
Comparitech does not condone or encourage any copyright violation, including streaming video from pirated sources. Although VPNs can skirt geographical restrictions and mask the user’s identity, please consider the local laws, victims, and risks of piracy before downloading or streaming copyrighted material without permission.
Image credit: “Football” by Kelvin Stuttard licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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