Russia ready to upset Spain at Euro 2008 semifinal

VIENNA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Russia coach Guus Hiddink has been quite sure that his men would like nothing better than to revenge on the better rated Spain here on Thursday at the both sides' first Euro semifinal in last two decades.

The Magic Dutch dubbed his Russian side a "sleeping giant" after stopping the Netherlands' winning streak by a 3-1 extra time victory in last Saturday's quarterfinal, and was confident that his team will put Spain's Euro 2008 dreams to bed.

Russia endured a disappointing 4-1 defeat at the hands of Luis Aragones' side during their tournament opener, before going on to win their remaining group matches against Sweden and Greece.

The victory over highly-favored Holland made Russia the most discussed rising power and earned them a semifinal berth to again meet La Seleccion.

Hiddink hopes that Thursday's match will be a revenge campaign for the Russians.

"This game will be very different from the first match against Spain and we want revenge," said the 61-year-old, who led South Korea to their first ever World Cup last four before repeating hismagic here at Euro 2008 with Russia.

The coach described their semifinal rivals Spain a team "to play football, but if they go 1-0 up, as we've seen, they drop back and play on the counterattack".

"Of course we are the underdogs but we have come from very far," he added. "Before the Holland game almost nobody knew the names of my players or the clubs where they play."

The quarterfinal win over the Netherlands, however, has changed some opinions less favoring the Russians, though Aragones finally found the " only lacked things" of his team in recent games.

The Spaniard warned before the start of Euro 2008 that Spain just lacked elusive stroke of luck and the management of a game if they wanted to become champions.

His team went through great test after outplaying world champions Italy and then winning on penalties.

Aragones' players are also motivated for Thursday's semi as the perfect-recorded Spaniards only reached this level in 48 years of trying.

Having beaten Hungary in 1964, they went on to win the final against the Soviet Union courtesy of a goal by Marcelino.

They waited another 20 years to return to the last four, needing penalties to get past Denmark before losing to hosts France.

Currently, Aragones has none of either injury and suspension worries. Carles Puyol and Santi Cazorla have overcome foot injuries and David Silva recovered after twisting his ankle.

Hiddink has slight injury worries, with midfielder Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, forward Ivan Sayenko and Alexander Anyukov all carrying minor ailments from the quarter-finals, but the team sets to do without full back Denis Kolodin and attacking midfielder Dmitry Torbinski on suspension.

Historically, Spain hold an upper-hand after winning three of their four previous meeting with Russia along with a draw.