| Russia completes last eight lineup |
| DATA： 2008-06-20 |
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| Russia’s Roman Pavlyuchenko (L) vies for the ball with Sweden’s Petter Hansson in Innsbruck, Austria, on Wednesday. SD-Agencies |
The Swedes, who only needed a draw to progress from the opening group stage, which ended on Wednesday night, joined the already eliminated Greeks on an early flight home.
Greece, which won Euro 2004 against all the odds and expectations, returned to type as big-event whipping boys — the side is the only one of the 16 finalists not to gain a single point after losing to Spain 2-1 Wednesday.
Fans from co-host Austria and Switzerland, whose teams also made first-stage exits, are looking for other nations to support following their failure too in the group stage and Russia’s dominant display will certainly have won them some new admirers.
Roman Pavlyuchenko sidefooted home after a great interchange of passing midway through the first half in Innsbruck before Andrei Arshavin, playing his first match of the tournament after a ban, finished off a similar flowing move.
“We’re very proud of what the team’s achieved in this tournament but that’s not enough. The next goal is the Dutch,” said Hiddink, who coached the Netherlands to the World Cup semifinals in 1998 and now meets the side in Basel on Saturday.