QUARTER-FINAL LATEST
Netherlands 0-0 Russia 1945 BST
GOALFLASHES AND MAJOR INCIDENTS (all times BST)
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(Not all contributions can be used) By Caroline Cheese
2004: A poor defensive header lets in Wesley Sneijder, who rides Aleksandr Anyukov's sliding challenge and gets Euro 2008: Italy advance to quarter-finals ...
Euro 2008: Portugal beats Czechs 3-1, Switzerland lose to Turkey ...
EM due to begin ...
EU Reaffirms Support for Georgia in Spat with Russia ...
Bomb kills Dutch commander's son ... into a shooting position but his effort is blocked. A rare sight of goal for the Dutch.
2003: "Guus Hiddink has done his homework. Russia are letting the Dutch players who can't do any damage have the ball. Van der Vaart and Sneijder aren't in the game."
BBC Radio 5 Live analyst Chris Waddle
2002: Yuri Zhirkov gives away a rather unnecessary free-kick by tripping Dirk Kuyt, but Rafael Van der Vaart's delivery from the right is poor - straight down the throat of the Russian keeper.
1958: Roman Pavlyuchenko is played in on the left by a delicious lofted pass from midfield but there's no one in the box for his cross and Orlando Engelaar, after a bit of dallying, eventually gets the ball away.
1954: According to our BBC Radio 5 Live commentator, it was on this very day eight years ago that Spain beat Yuogslavia 4-3 in a classic encounter. For those that don't remember, Spain did a Turkey, scoring twice in injury-time to reach the quarter-finals.
1953: Igor Semshov crosses from the right onto the head of an unmarked Roman Pavlyuchenko but the striker wastefully balloons the header over the bar. The Dutch are still asleep.
1952: Good start from Russia. Holland not really into their stride. "They're playing very slow," laments Chris Waddle.
1950: Russia have a promising free-kick out right. Yuri Zhirkov tries to curl it in at the near post but Edwin van der Sar saves comfortably.
1948: The ball cannons kindly into Gio van Bronckhorst's path and his cross from the left is aimed for Dirk Kuyt at the far post but the striker can't quite climb high enough.
1946: "Loads of empty seats in the Russian end. Terrible shame."
BBC Sport blogger Fletch at the St Jakob-Park
Fletch's latest blog
1945: Away we go...
1943: The Dutch fans are singing "Boula Boula Boula Boulahrouz" in tribute to Khalid, who plays tonight despite the death of his prematurely-born baby this week. Holland play in black armbands tonight.
1942: Did Guus Hiddink sing the Dutch anthem? Well, I can't tell you, because the cameraman decided on a long lingering shot up Edwin van der Sar's nose instead. Grrr.
1940: There's the familiar sound of the White Stripes' Seven Nation Army to welcome the teams onto the pitch. Edwin can der Sar leads out the Dutch. The keeper wins his 128th cap tonight.
1939: "I'm three rows behind Marco van Basten's seat and about 300 camera lenses are pointing in my direction. I feel a little unnerved."
BBC Sport blogger Fletch at the St Jakob-Park
Fletch's latest blog
1937: The mini-opening ceremony is just coming to a close in Basel. The Dutch band are absentmindedly banging their drums to the rhythm of one of Shaggy's official Euro 2008 tunes. Oh, thank goodness, there are the players.
1934: "Am very nervous about the game. Will end up probably listening to it from the garden. Too tense to watch!"
Mark, de Nederlandse in London, via text on 81111
1930: The news from the Dutch camp is that Arjen Robben is unlikely to come off the substitutes' bench after suffering a recurrence of his groin injury. The flying winger stood at the side of the pitch as the rest of his team-mates went through their paces at the St Jakob-Park.
1926: "Come on Russia! I pulled them out the hat in the office sweepstake and I was gutted I didn't pull a big side. Time for revenge!"
Martin, stuck on a night shift, via text on 81111
1921: Here's a thing... Russia are trying to become the second team win this tournament after losing their first game. Who were the first? The Netherlands in 1988. Who did they lose to in their first game? USSR. Who did they beat in the final? Yup, you guessed it, USSR. Scrappy goal that sealed victory in that final if I remember rightly.
1920: Danny the Stat has been working particularly hard for you readers today. Here's another titbit: "Player Rater favourite Andrei Arshavin will need to be at his imperious best tonight. According to rater users, five of the top 10 defenders at the tournament belong to the Netherlands. For the record, the quality quintet are Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Andre Ooijer, Jonny Heitinga, Wilfred Bouma, and Joris Mathijsen."
1917: "I'm telling you Cheeso its going to be 2-1 to the freaky deaky Dutch, with Ruud "the dude" Van Nistelrooy to open the scoring!"
Graziano, Sicily, via text on 81111
1915: The Netherlands have only lost one European Championship quarter-final... losing on penalties to France in 1996, when one Guus Hiddink was at the helm. Indeed, Dutch fans have more reason even than the English to fear spot-kicks. They went out of the Euros in '92, '96 and 2000 on shoot-outs as well as the '98 World Cup. Yikes.
1911: "Not many Russian fans at all at the stadium. Tickets are going for 800 euros. Mario Melchiot played against Romania but was relegated to carrying the balls out tonight."
BBC Sport blogger Fletch at the St Jakob-Park
Fletch's latest blog
1909: "Can't wait for this. Russia should give Holland more problems than France and Italy did... Looking forward to a cracking game of attacking, counter-attacking and counter-counter-attacking football. 0-0 and penalties it is then."
emjaylambert on 606
Join the debate on 606
1906: Make that 150,001 Dutchmen. Guus Hiddink leads Russia against his countrymen tonight. Here's how he says he got his team playing: "I demand a response. I don't want to sound cocky, but if you want to play at international level, then the demands I lay down mean you can go two ways: either fly, or fight. They chose to fight." And to think Hiddink was considered one of the frontrunners for the England job before Steve McClaren was appointed... if only.
1902: There are a reported 150,000 Dutchmen in Basel. "We're in a state of emergency, " said a local police officer - although he adds that the atmosphere in Roger Federer's hometown is peaceful.
1858: "Everything has worked well from day one," says Dutch keeper Edwin van der Sar. You can say that again Ed. But how will the Netherlands cope with moving to Basel, after playing all their group games in Berne? Yes, we're back the St Jakob-Park with its curious, patchwork pitch.
1856: "I'm excited too Cheesy. Cracking game coming up, BBQ coming on nicely, a few cold beers, and I've just bought a treadmill on ebay! Happy days!"
Anon via text on 81111
1853: And Danny the Stat isn't finished there. Here he is again: "All four Dutch players are trumped by Russia's Andrei Arshavin, whose brilliant display against Sweden gives him an average of 8.68 - making him the second-highest rated player at the tournament, a mere 0.01 behind Spain's David Villa."
1850: Just in case you're in any doubt about the classic potential of tonight's game, let's have a word from BBC Sport's Danny the Stat shall we? He says: "No less than five of the top 10 players at Euro 2008 so far - as voted for by users of our Player Rater tool - will be in action tonight. And four of those five are from the Netherlands. Wesley Sneijder (with an average score of 8.57), Edwin van der Sar (8.14), Ruud van Nistelrooy (7.99) and Gio van Bronckhorst (7.96) are all in the premier league of Player Rater scores."
1846: Netherlands coach Marco van Basten reverts to the starting XI that beat France 4-1 after resting nine players for the victory over Romania, which means no starting berth for Arjen Robben or Robin van Persie. Russia coach Guus Hiddink, preparing to face his countrymen, makes just one change with Nuremberg midfielder Ivan Saenko replacing Diniyar Bilyaletdinov.
1844: TEAMS
Netherlands: Van der Sar, Boulahrouz, Ooijer, Mathijsen, Van Bronckhorst, De Jong, Engelaar, Kuyt, Van der Vaart, Sneijder, van Nistelrooy. Subs: Timmer, Stekelenburg, Heitinga, De Zeeuw, Van Persie, Robben, Melchiot, Bouma, De Cler, Huntelaar, Afellay, Vennegoor of Hesselink.
Russia: Akinfeev, Aniukov, Ignashevich, Kolodin, Zhirkov, Semak, Zyryanov, Semshov, Saenko, Arshavin, Pavluchenko. Subs: Gabulov, Malafeev, Vasili Berezutsky, Yanbaev, Alexei Berezutsky, Adamov, Torbinsky, Ivanov, Shirokov, Bilyaletdinov, Sychev, Bystrov.
1842: So on to tonight's game… Netherlands v Russia. Got a nice ring to it hasn't it? The best team of Euro 2008 so far against the most improved. Guus Hiddink pits his wits against his countrymen. A repeat of the 1988 final. I'm so excited, I feel a bit sick.
1837: So one semi-final is settled: Germany, a team you can never write off, against Turkey, a team you can never write off, which is going to make it very hard to make a prediction. Anyway, that's in Basel on Wednesday. Tonight and tomorrow's games will decide who battles it out in Thursday's semi-final in Vienna. Huge.
1830: Do you know, when I adopted Turkey as my team for Euro 2008, I wasn't expecting all that much… Yet another reason I've fallen in love with Euro 2008.
(BBC)
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