| Russians stun Dutch to reach last 4 |
| DATA： 2008-06-23 |
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| Netherlands’coach Marco van Basten (R) puts his arm around goalkeeper Edwin van Der Sar after their Euro 2008 quarterfinal defeat to Russia on Saturday. |
“What the boys did tonight, their commitment, to outplay tactically, physically a Dutch team — after the game I don’t want to talk in big words, but it’s a miracle,” Hiddink said. “It’s super what the guys did. Super.”
Netherlands had looked to be Euro 2008 favorite ahead of the game after a tremendous run in the group stage, which saw the side humble 2006 World Cup champion Italy and runner-up France before seeing off Romania with a second-string side.
But Russia outclassed the 1988 European champion with Roman Pavlyuchenko scoring his third goal of the tournament early in the second half and then Dmitry Torbinsky and Andrei Arshavin gave Russia the victory they richly deserved.
Ruud van Nistelrooy had pulled one back for the Netherlands in the 86th minute to take the game to extra time.
Russia, which lost its first group game of the tournament 4-1 to Spain, will face the winner of the match between Italy and Spain in Vienna.
Arshavin, who was suspended for Russia’s first two group matches, has made all the difference since his return for the team’s final group game against Sweden, in which he scored one of Russia’s two goals.
The boyish-looking 27-year-old played another superb match Saturday and sobbed with over-flowing emotion as he left the field.
“It’s a great happiness for me and for the whole of Russia,” he said.
| Russia’s coach Guus Hiddink (R) celebrates with his players after their Euro 2008 quarterfinal victory over the Netherlands at St. Jakob Park stadium in Basel, Switzerland, on Saturday.SD-Agencies |
Arshavin was dismissed for kicking an Andorra player in a qualifier, an offence that lost him the team captaincy and earned him a two-game ban in this tournament.
Hiddink had warned before the match he would aim to be a “big traitor” and he looked the part as he celebrated his team’s win with the gusto of any Russian.
“The coach said he expected the Dutch would play very aggressively against us. But it turned out that they ran out of breath before we did. At the end the better Dutchman — our trainer — won,” said Arshavin.
Hiddink was himself in charge of Netherlands for four years from 1994 and took them to the 1998 World Cup semifinals.
He gave goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar his Netherlands debut in 1995, but he was the man whose team ended the 37-year-old’s international career.
Van der Sar was playing in his sixth and last major tournament. His first three ended in penalty shoot-out defeats — at Euro 96, the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.
So far, all three quarterfinals have been won by group runners-up.
Germany beat Portugal 3-2 Thursday while Turkey advanced to the semifinals with a 3-1 shootout victory over Croatia on Friday.
(SD-Agencies)