Netherlands vs Russia
in Basle.
Thursday, 19th June at 20.45
Marco van Basten vs Guus Hiddink; the pupil is up
against the teacher. Let's see how it goes. Did the Dutch start off too strong? Have
Russia still got more to come? Hopefuly we'll have a masterclass of attacking football in
Basle tonight.
The summer has finally arrived in Switzerland, so the effects of the
heat might play a factor late in the game.
Russia started by taking the game to Holland and had two close chances
in the first eight minutes; a free-kick that Edwin Van der Sar handled well and a header
over the bar by Roman Pavluchenko.
Things slowed down around the quarter-hour mark, then Holland had a
sniff at goal; Sergei Ignashevich crucially blocking Wesley Sneijder's attempt.
On the half-hour it was Van der Sar's fingertips that kept Andrei
Arshavin's shot out and then the Manchester United goalkeeper palmed Denis Kolodin's high
drive over the bar, less than a minute later.
Kolodin, who had looked so good attacking the Dutch area made an
almost costly error in his own. Thankfully for the Russians, Igor Akinfeev could easily
punch away the threatening shot.
Half-time - 0:0
Dirk Kuyt didn't look too effective in the first-half and was replaced
by Robin van Persie at the re-start.
Just after Johnny Heitinga came on for Khalid Boulahrouz, Russia's
Sergei Semak beat the Dutchman for pace down the left and whipped in a cross for Roman
Pavluchenko to put Guus Hiddink's side in front.
Pavluchenko breathed a sigh of relief.
Marco van Basten then played his last substitution card, with almost
half an hour remaining; while Russia still had a full house.
With the minutes ticking down, Wesley Sneijder's long free-kick was
met by some poor Russian defending and the head of Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Just before the final whistle, Russia were almost reduced to ten men
when Denis Kolodin was shown his second yellow card. Lubos Michel then consulted his
assistant and called Kolodin back onto the pitch.
Full-time - 1:1
Thanks to courageous refereeing, it's all square as the quarter-final
goes into extra-time.
Roman Pavluchenko struck the crossbar with venom in the 96th minute,
then just shook his head.
Yuri Zhirkov had a penalty appeal turned down in the second period of
extra-time; with Russia looking more like scoring than Holland.
Not long after Dmitri Torbinski received the yellow card that meant he
could miss the semi-final, if Russia won, the Lokomotiv Moscow midfielder dashed to the
far post to clip in the goal that could take his team through to meet Spain or Italy.
Then to put the icing on the cake, Andrei Arshavin ran through on to a
long throw-in and slipped the ball through Van der Sar's legs, thanks to a slight
deflection off Johnny Heitinga's boot.
Final Score:
Netherlands 1 - Russia 3
Goalscorers:
0:1 Roman Pavluchenko (56)
1:1 Ruud van Nistelrooy (86)
1:2 Dmitri Torbinski (111)
1:3 Andrei Arshavin (116)
Teams
Netherlands:
1 Edwin Van der Sar; 5 Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, 4 Joris Mathijsen, 2 Andre Ooijer, 21
Khalid Boulahrouz; 10 Wesley Sneijder, 8 Orlando Engelaar, 23 Rafael Van der Vaart, 17
Nigel De Jong, 18 Dirk Kuyt; 9 Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Russia:
1 Igor Akinfeev; 18 Yuri Zhirkov, 8 Denis Kolodin, 4 Sergei Ignashevich, 22 Aleksandr
Aniukov; 9 Ivan Saenko, 11 Sergei Semak, 20 Igor Semshov, 17 Konstatin Zurianov; 10 Andrei
Arshavin, 19 Roman Pavluchenko.
Referee:
Lubos Michel (Slovakia)
Substitutions:
46 Mins - 7 Robin van Persie on for 18 Dirk Kuyt
54 Mins - 3 Johnny Heitinga on for 21 Khalid Boulahrouz
62 Mins - 20 Ibrahim Afellay on for 8 Orlando Engelaar
69 Mins - 15 Diniyar Bilyaletdinov on for 20 Igor Semshov
81 Mins - 7 Dmitri Torbinski on for 9 Ivan Saenko
115 Mins - 21 Dmitri Sychev on for 19 Roman Pavluchenko
 6 Yellow Cards:
50 Mins - Khalid Boulahrouz (Netherlands)
55 Mins - Robin van Persie (Netherlands)
60 Mins - Rafael Van der Vaart (Netherlands)
71 Mins - Denis Kolodin (Russia) - Will miss the semi-final.
103 Mins - Yuri Zhirkov (Russia)
110 Mins - Dmitri Torbinski (Russia) - Will miss the semi-final.
Onto the semi-final.
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