A fantastic display of attacking football from Russia proved to be too much for Sweden to handle, as goals from Roman Pavlyuchenko and Andrei Arshavin booked a quarter-final meeting with Holland.

Both teams received a major boost before kick-off, with Russia being able to finally call upon Arshavin for the first time at Euro 2008 after his two-match ban expired – winger Dimitri Torbinsky was the unlucky man to miss out. Sweden, who would have reached the last eight with a draw, named an unchanged starting XI after Zlatan Ibrahimovic came through a late fitness test on his injured left knee to take his place up front alongside Henrik Larsson.

Ibra was instantly involved in the action, albeit in comical circumstances, as the Inter ace attempted a scorpion kick in the penalty area only to miss the ball completely and catch Sergei Ignashevich straight in the face.

Russia had the better of the early exchanges though and could have had a decent chance at goal had Konstantin Zyryanov not gotten in the way of teammate Igor Semshov when well placed. They continued to push forward and Arshavin really should have done better with a free header from Anyukov’s cross.

The Swedes looked tired after their gruelling encounter against Spain on Saturday and were being overrun by Guus Hiddink’s men, with Arshavin pulling the strings and going close once more with a shot. The Zenit St Petersburg man was at the heart of the action again with an audacious cross cum shot which Andreas Isaksson was forced to tip over.

The Swedes didn’t heed the warnings and fell behind after 24 minutes as Pavlyuchenko showed why he is so highly rated with an excellent low finish from Anyukov’s centre at the end of a well-worked team move. It was a more than deserved lead for Russia, who were putting on a fine show for the Innsbruck crowd.

The goal seemed to spur Sweden into life though, as they finally had their first attempt through Larsson, who was hoping to score at a sixth major international tournament. The former Celtic man flicked on a cross from Anders Svensson only to see it agonisingly bounce off the top of the bar.

A brief period of sparring followed as Russia seemed content to play the ball around the midfield, before Pavlyuchenko rattled the woodwork with a fine effort from just inside the box. The ball bounced down off the crossbar and hit a Swedish defender and it took an excellent intervention from Isaksson to keep the ball out.

The former Juve ‘keeper was in action once more from the resulting corner with another fine save and his colleagues finally came into the game as first Freddie Ljungberg and then Mikael Nilsson brought the best out of Igor Akinfeev. It proved to be the final action in an action-packed first half which Russia clearly had the better off.

Hiddink’s boys began the second period in the same manner as the first and sensationally doubled their tally. A wonderful move saw Arshavin play in Zhirkov down the left flank and the influential playmaker got on the end of the return feed to put Russia firmly in the driving seat.

The goal prompted Lars Lagerback into a change, with Daniel Andersson making way for the more attack-minded Kim Kallstrom. The switch helped Sweden establish themselves more in the Russian half, but they struggled to create chances – which was typified by Larsson attempting an audacious overhead kick from an impossible angle.

Juventus new boy Olof Mellberg was next up, getting his head on the end of a Kallstrom corner only to send it over the bar, while Anders Svensson ridiculously tried his luck from the best part of 30 yards out.

Hiddink, clearly not happy with his side allowing Sweden plenty of the ball, mixed things up after 66 minutes by replacing Bilyaletdinov with Ivan Saenko, the only player in Hiddink’s squad to ply his trade outside of the Russian Premier League.

The substitution didn’t change much, as Sweden continued to have plenty of the ball without really doing anything with it. On one of the rare occasions when there was a bit of quality from out wide, Ibrahimovic could only find Akinfeev’s hands with his weak header.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, so off came full-back Nilsson for Sweden to allow another striker, Marcus Allback, to enter the fray. All that did was spark scenes of chaos in their own defence, as a failure to adjust to the change allowed Zyryanov time and space to fire a deflected shot against the woodwork, before Saenko woefully misdirected his header from the rebound.

As Sweden continued to throw bodies forward, another swift counter-attack produced a great chance for Pavlyuchenko to net his third goal of the tournament, but the Spartak Moscow man could only drag his shot wide. Russia continued to look threatening on the break, but ultimately their two goals were enough to send Sweden packing. Hiddink has now successfully negotiated the group stage in each of his five international tournaments as a Coach.
Russia: Akinfeev; Anyukov, Kolodin, Ignashevich, Zhirkov; Semak, Zyryanov, Semshov, Bilyaletdinov (Saenko 66); Arshavin, Pavlyuchenko (Bystrov 90)

Sweden: Isaksson; Stoor, Mellberg, Hansson, Nilsson (Allback 79); Elmander, Svensson, Andersson (Kallstrom 56), Ljungberg; Ibrahimovic, H Larsson

Ref: De Bleeckere (Bel)

Ref From channel4.com

Holland kept their word and produced a competitive 2-0 win against Romania, which confirmed they finish Group C with a 100% record – and more importantly ensured Italy’s win over France would take the Azzurri into the quarter-finals.

Holland had made the expected changes but it was still a formidable line-up, with deadly Ajax striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar getting his first playing time of the tournament. Romania, meanwhile, knew that a win would send them into the quarter-finals and for Adrian Mutu it would let him off the hook following his penalty miss against Italy.

It was the Fiorentina man who carved the first chance of the evening as his cross was met by Inverness CT striker Marius Niculae, but his effort went wide of the post. Nonetheless, it sent a warning to the Dutch that Victor Piturca’s side meant business.

The opening proceedings were played with a strange air of tension in Berne as Romania knew that a draw would take them through as long as there was no news from France and Italy’s game in Zurich.

The Dutch finally unlocked the Romanian defence in the 19th minute as the giant Orlando Engelaar floated a cross to the far post, but Robin Van Persie was unable to keep his header down as Marco Van Basten’s men found their opponents as difficult to break down as France and Italy had.

Shortly after, Mutu received his first real chance to atone for his spot-kick horror. Wriggling into space in the area he managed to unleash a shot, but the deflection looped across the goal rather than into the net. It was only a half-chance but could have been vital as moments later news filtered through to the stands that Italy had taken the lead against France. Romania were heading out if they, or France, did not get a goal.

On the half hour mark Mutu again found himself with the chance to swing the pendulum back in his favour, bearing down on goal he dropped his shoulder to win some space and unleashed a sweet shot that zipped just wide as Romania began to look the more likely to score.

However, a reminder was fired in the 37th minute of just how fragile their Euro future was when Huntelaar’s deft touch threaded in Robben, but the Real Madrid winger poked the ball just inches wide of the post. The more the Eastern European’s pushed for the vital goal the more vulnerable they became at the back.

Piturca would have been forgiven for thinking it was not his night as just before the interval a beautiful cut-back fell to Siena’s Paul Codrea but his effort flew high over Maarten Stekelenberg’s crossbar. 0-0 at the break, but Romania needed to step up a gear in the second half – although their own fate was still in their hands.

The Dutch carved the first chance of the second half a long ball right in to the area found Van Persie, who controlled and turned away from his marker majestically. However, his finish was low and easy for Lobont who palmed it round the post.

But the breakthrough came soon after, with a now traditional counter-attacking goal. Ibrahim Afellay’s in-swinging cross bounced through a forest of legs before finding the foot of Huntelaar who tapped home instinctively.

As news reached the Stade de Suisse of Italy’s second goal the task began to look insurmountable. With two goals required in the last 25 minutes it was going to take a miraculous revival for Romania to steal the Azzurri’s quarter-final berth.

The stuffing had been knocked from them though and chances began to become few and far between as the confident Dutch began passing the ball around expertly.

A further blow hit the under dogs as Cristian Chivu’s challenge on Tim De Cler earned him a yellow card on the fringe of the last ten minutes and would rule him out of the knockout round if his side could pull off a shock turn around.

As the game entered its last ten minutes though the sense or urgency took over for Romania and Italian nerves began to fray. A pinball moment in the Dutch area saw several white-shirted players shape to shoot before the chance finally fell for Florentin Petre, but his overhead kick went well over.

The period of pressure continued but it seemed too little too late, and the desperate scrambling of the attacking side was continually swamped by an orange defence that refused to be breached.

Eventually in the 87th minute Van Persie put them out of their misery as he collected a pass from Demy De Zeeuw, shook off Cosmin Contra and powered the ball beyond Lobont. Game over – there was no stitch up this time and Italy breathed a sigh of relief as their place in the last eight along with Holland was confirmed.
Holland: Stekelenburg; Boulahrouz (Melchiot 58), Heitinga, Bouma, De Cler; De Zeuww, Engelaar; Van Persie, Robben (Kuyt 62), Afellay; Huntelaar (Vennegoor of Hesselink 83)

Romania: Lobont; Contra, Tamas, Ghionea, Rat; Codrea (Dica 72), Chivu, Nicolita (Petre 81); Cocis, Mutu; M Niculae (D Niculae 59)

Ref: Busacca (Swi)

Ref From channel4.com

Andrea Pirlo’s penalty and a deflected Daniele De Rossi strike sank 10-man France to send Italy into the quarter-final, where they’ll face Spain.

Few expected this to be a crunch match for survival rather than group leadership when the draw was made, but both teams would be out if Romania beat Holland’s second-string side. The Azzurri would go through with a win or even a draw if the Romanians lost, but had not beaten the French in 90 minutes since the 1978 World Cup.

Roberto Donadoni made two changes, introducing Gennaro Gattuso and Antonio Cassano for Juventus duo Mauro Camoranesi and Alessandro Del Piero, switching to a 4-3-1-2 system. It was Cassano’s first start in 21 months. Raymond Domenech went for an all-attack formation, though Inter midfielder Patrick Vieira was still not 100 per cent fit.

Italy played in their all-white strip in the pouring rain. Luca Toni had a fantastic early chance when he took a long ball away from Eric Abidal only to scuff well wide with just the goalkeeper to beat.

Franck Ribery hurt his ankle during a mistimed tackle on Gianluca Zambrotta and had to be stretchered off in clear agony, substituted by interesting youth product Samir Nasri.

Christian Panucci has scored Italy’s only goal so far in this tournament and nearly made it two on 10 minutes when his header from a corner was cleared off the line by Claude Makelele.

Karim Benzema fired wide of the near post from distance and Patrice Evra went into the book for a foul on Cassano. Simone Perrotta’s first touch wasn’t good enough to make the most of Andrea Pirlo’s smart ball over the top that had sent him clear on goal.

The game changed on 24 minutes. A Pirlo searching pass over the defence was hooked down by Toni and Abidal mistimed the tackle from behind to hack him down clumsily. The penalty and the red card were inevitable. Pirlo created the goal and converted it, smashing the finish high into the near top corner.

In a curious move, Domenech replaced substitute Nasri with ex-Juventus defender Jean-Alain Boumsong, leaving the youngster on the field for only 15 minutes.

In a well-worked move, Fabio Grosso and Perrotta combined for the on-rushing Daniele De Rossi to blast over. Toni nearly scored the goal of the tournament with an acrobatic backheel flick that skimmed the upright! Another ball over the top from Pirlo was ballooned off target by Toni at full stretch and fired wide again from a promising position.

Yet Thierry Henry went close with an angled drive that flashed across the face of goal.

De Rossi went on a slalom and after riding the fourth tackle was brought down by Jeremie Toulalan just outside the box. From that set-piece Fabio Grosso curled a fine left-foot finish on to the base of the upright thanks to Lyon teammate Gregory Coupet’s fingertip save!

France went on the counter despite Perrotta being down injured and Pirlo was booked for a tackle to stop Benzema, meaning the Milan midfielder will be suspended for the next match.

Italy were particularly furious moments later when Evra was down and this time Lubos Michel stopped play so he could receive treatment. The tension rose and Giorgio Chiellini went into the book, too.

Straight after the restart Sidney Govou saw yellow for a sliding tackle on Cassano, but there was a scare as a totally unmarked Benzema cracked a fierce volley just over from Toulalan’s deflected cross. Henry had a couple of chances comfortably smothered by Gigi Buffon as 10-man France began to cause problems.

Gennaro Gattuso was booked and will also be suspended. Pirlo made way for Milan companion Massimo Ambrosini to shore up the midfield, but Panucci had to clear from Benzema in a dangerous move. The Azzurri seemed almost nervous at the prospect of victory and were under pressure from the 10 men of France.

Coupet came charging out to clear a Cassano through ball off the feet of Toni. Italy finally doubled their lead with a moment of luck that had evaded them for the tournament so far. De Rossi’s free kick from 25 metres took a decisive deflection off Henry’s foot in the wall to send Coupet the wrong way.

Perrotta made way for Mauro Camoranesi and Nicolas Anelka replaced Govou. Boumsong was booked for a tackle from behind on Toni to halt a counter and the Bayern Munich striker’s header from a Camoranesi cross was deflected out for a corner.

Buffon performed his first real save of the night on 73 minutes, flying to palm a marvellous Benzema curler round the post.

The final substitution saw Gattuso leave the field for Alberto Aquilani and the Roma man will be needed as Rino must sit out a ban. Within seconds the substitute won back a smart ball that Cassano crossed for Toni and although Coupet made a save, it would have been ruled out anyway due to a push.

The tension got to Henry and he was carded for a pointless challenge on former Barcelona teammate Zambrotta. Coupet gathered a deflected Cassano effort and in stoppages the unlucky Toni thumped the frame of the goal with a fierce strike from the edge of the box.
France: Coupet; Clerc, Gallas, Abidal, Evra; Govou (Anelka 66), Toulalan, Makelele, Ribery (Nasri 10) (Boumsong 25); Benzema, Henry

Italy: Buffon; Zambrotta, Panucci, Chiellini, Grosso; Gattuso (Aquilani 81), Pirlo (Ambrosini 54), De Rossi; Perrotta (Camoranesi 63); Cassano, Toni

Ref: Michel (Slk)

Sent off: Abidal 24 (F)

Ref From channel4.com