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

Spain got their European Championship campaign off to a stunning start, as David Villa’s hat-trick was enough to comfortably see off Russia in Group D’s opening game.

The two sides are no strangers, as they also met at the group stage in Portugal four years ago. Juan Carlos Valeron proved to be the Red Fury’s match-winner on that occasion, but neither side reached the quarter-finals so they will be hoping to improve their fortunes this time out.

Luis Aragones surprisingly opted to omit Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas from Spain’s starting XI as he decided to go with anchorman Marcos Senna in the middle of the park. And it perhaps wasn’t the Russia side that he expected opposite number Guus Hiddink to field, as Roman Shirokov and Denis Kolodin lined-up alongside each other at the heart of the defence for the first time in a competitive game.

It was a decision the Dutchman – incidentally the first Coach to lead two different nations at a European Championship, having been in the Holland hot seat at Euro ’96 – quickly began to regret as Spain made light of the heavy rain in Innsbruck to dominate the early stages. First Fernando Torres went close and then Villa opted for a shot when perhaps the pass would have been a more selfless option.

And though a lovely Russian passing move almost created a goal at the other end, it was the Red Fury who opened the scoring. Torres shrugged off a challenge from Kolodin and, clearly learning from his partner’s mistake earlier, played the ball back to Villa to hand Spain the perfect start.

The lead was almost immediately wiped out though, as some comical Spanish defending allowed Konstantin Zyryanov time and space in the box only to see his shot agonisingly come back off the post.

However, normal service quickly resumed as the ever-dangerous Torres tested Akinfeev from distance and Villa quickly followed suit from slightly closer in. It really was child’s play for the boys in red as they were cutting through a shoddy Russian backline with ease time and time again.

It was soon 2-0 to Aragones’ side, but not before Roman Pavlyuchenko gave them a scare after hitting the crossbar – although the referee’s whistle had blown just before he struck it. It was that man Villa again who extended the advantage on the stroke of half-time, taking advantage of space in behind to get on the end of a lovely Andres Iniesta through ball. The finish, through Akinfeev’s legs, was majestic.

The second half began with a change for Russia, as Dmitri Sychev made way for Vladimir Bystrov and the speedy winger was quickly looking threatening. After almost getting in behind, the Spartak Moscow man then headed the resulting corner straight at Iker Casillas. Sensing danger, Aragones surprisingly withdrew Torres for Fabregas in a bid to shore up the midfield. Responding to this, Hiddink threw on Dmitri Torbinsky in place of Igor Semshov.

The change didn’t exactly have the desired effect, as Spain almost added to their advantage through Villa once again. Some intelligent off-the-ball running opened things up for the Valencia man, but his low drive from just outside the box was smartly stopped by Akinfeev.

A similar effort from Bilyaletdinov at the other end almost caught out Casillas as Russia tried to get back into the game, but their rhythm was quickly disrupted as Spain made their second change of the evening, introducing Santi Cazorla for just his third cap in place of Iniesta.

The change seemed to inspire Spain as they attempted to set-up Villa for his hat-trick, with both Fabregas and Ramos just failing to pick him out when well placed. A corner then brought about chances for Senna and David Silva, but Akinfeev was up to the task.

Bizarrely, half-time substitute Bystrov was replaced by striker Roman Adamov just 25 minutes after coming on as Hiddink played his final card. It almost paid dividends as Pavlyuchenko had a deflected shot well saved by Casillas, but soon after it was game, set and match to Spain.

Breaking smartly, substitute Fabregas picked up the ball in the middle of the park and threaded a lovely ball through for Villa. It looked like the No 7 had fluffed his lines, but he readjusted superbly before coolly slotting past Akinfeev for the first hat-trick of Euro 2008. He celebrated by running over to his buddy Torres in the Spain dugout.

Another change followed in the 77th minute as Juventus-bound Xabi Alonso came on for Silva and Spain almost lost their clean-sheet when Pavlyuchenko – one of the few Russia players to come out of the game with any credit – narrowly missed the target from 25 yards. He didn’t have to wait long to get his reward though, as Spain failed to clear their lines from a corner and the Spartak Moscow man powerfully headed home.

The goal means that two teams have finally scored in the same game at Euro 2008, but it made no difference for Russia as they failed to take advantage of a great opportunity at one end to set up a grand-stand finish. Fabregas punished them in stoppage time as Akinfeev could only parry a Xavi shot into his path for an easy header, although the Arsenal man was clearly offside.
Spain: Casillas; Ramos, Puyol, Marchena, Capdevila; Senna; Iniesta (Santi Cazorla 63), Xavi, Silva (Alonso 77); Villa, Torres (Fabregas 54)

Russia: Afinkeev; Anyukov, Kolodin, Shirokov, Zhirkov; Semak, Zyryanov, Semshov (Torbinski 58), Bilyaletdinov, Sychev (Bystrov 46) (Adamov 70); Pavlyuchenko

Ref: Plautz (Aus)

Ref From channel4.com