Sport | Football
Sponsored by
Hiddink sets up Dutch date for Russia
Russia set up a Euro 2008 quarterfinal with coach Guus Hiddink's native Netherlands after a deserved 2-0 win over Sweden in Group D on Wednesday completed the lineup for the last eight.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:08 June 20, 2008
Vienna: Russia set up a Euro 2008 quarterfinal with coach Guus Hiddink's native Netherlands after a deserved 2-0 win over Sweden in Group D on Wednesday completed the lineup for the last eight.
The Swedes, who only needed a draw to progress from the opening group stage which ended on Wednesday night, join the already eliminated Greeks on an early flight home.
Like Romania on Tuesday before them and to an extent France, Sweden and Greece have paid the penalty for a lack of attacking ambition in a tournament which has been graced generally with scintillating and winning football in more ways than one.
Greece, who won Euro 2004 against all the odds and expectations, have returned to type as big-event whipping boys - they are the only one of the 16 finalists not to gain a single point after losing to Spain 2-1 on Wednesday.
Fans from co-hosts 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.
Beautiful football
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 Netherlands to the World Cup semifinals in 1998 and now meets them in Basel on Saturday.
"It is a very special date for me," admitted Hiddink.
"I know the players well, I know the coach (Marco van Basten), and a lot of the coaching staff with whom I worked seven years ago. We play like them beautiful football, so it should be a spectacular match." Hiddink, who also guided South Korea to the 2002 World Cup semifinals when they co-hosted the global showpiece with Japan, said he was extremely proud of the way in which his young team had played in a match as important as that against a Swedish side loaded with experience.
"I am very proud of the team and also the progress that we have made over the match, in several days, and in training," said Hiddink.
"This evening we played really well, we tried always to score. After half-time, the Swedes pushed up more." Hiddink, who also guided Australia to the second round of the 2006 World Cup finals where they lost to a contentious penalty by eventual champions Italy, only had one criticism of the team, a similar one to when they played Greece. "The only criticism I would make of us is that we didn't score as many in comparison to the amount of chances we created."
Share this article
Popular in Sport
-
Pictures
Kings of the court
The world's top tennis players who will battle in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals
Sport Editor's choice
-
Davydenko stuns Federer to enter ATP final
The number 13 proved unlucky for World No.1 Roger Federer as he wilted before Nikolay Davydenko 6-2, 4-6, 7-5
-
Afghanistan snap UAE's victory run
Man of the match Hassan takes ten runs of the last two balls to spoil hosts' winning run in the tournament
-
Lewis, Peters take four shot leads
Players enter final day of boys' and girls' competitions at the Abu Dhabi Junior Championship
