World Glass 2018 stadiums Comprehensive help guide all 12 venues in 11 European urban centers

Looking Back at the 2018 World Cup Host Cities

The 2018 FIFA World Cup took place in Russia, with matches played in twelve stadiums across eleven host cities. Moscow was the only city with two grounds: the Luzhniki Stadium, which staged the opening match and the final, and the Spartak Stadium. The tournament is now part of football history, and France lifted the trophy after beating Croatia in the final. The venues are still worth knowing about for anyone interested in sport, architecture or travel.

The eleven host cities

• Moscow: Luzhniki Stadium and Spartak Stadium
• Saint Petersburg: a modern stadium on Krestovsky Island
• Kaliningrad: the westernmost venue, in the Russian exclave on the Baltic
• Kazan: capital of Tatarstan, on the Volga
• Nizhny Novgorod: at the meeting of the Volga and Oka rivers
• Samara and Volgograd: two more cities along the Volga
• Saransk: the smallest host city
• Rostov-on-Don: in southern Russia, on the Don river
• Sochi: on the Black Sea, using the stadium built for the 2014 Winter Olympics
• Yekaterinburg: the easternmost venue, close to the border between Europe and Asia

Several stadiums were built new for the tournament, while others, such as Luzhniki, were extensively rebuilt. The long distances between cities shaped the schedule, and team base camps and travel times often came up in tactical discussions.

Exploring the tournament through the library

Major tournaments leave behind more than match results. Sports almanacs, travel guides, books on stadium design and histories of the World Cup can show how host cities prepare and what happens to the venues afterwards. Readers who follow the Montenegrin and wider Balkan football scene may also enjoy comparing how different countries approach hosting large events.

You can search for football histories and regional travel titles in our catalog. To find coverage of earlier events, browse past coverage. If you need help finding sources on a sporting topic, staff at the library desk can point you to suitable reference material.