European Football Championship 2008 / Russia

This article covers the Russian national team at the 2008 European Football Championship .

At the European Championships in 2008, a selection of the Russian federation succeeded for the first time after the dissolution of the Soviet Union to survive the preliminary round and advance into the knockout round with victories over Greece and Sweden as group runners-up behind Spain and into the knockout round, as well as after a superior victory against the Netherlands even reached the semi-finals, where the team lost 3-0 to the Spaniards.

qualification

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Pt.
1	Croatia	12	9	2	1	28: 8	29
2	Russia	12	7th	3	2	18: 7	24
3	England	12	7th	2	3	24: 7	23
4th	Israel	12	7th	2	3	20:12	23
5	North Macedonia	12	4th	2	6th	12:12	14th
6th	Estonia	12	2	1	9	5:21	7th
7th	Andorra	12	0	0	12	2:42	0

After narrowly missing out on qualifying for the 2006 World Cup , the Russian federation had signed a non-Russian coach for the first time in the form of Dutchman Guus Hiddink , who made it to the quarter-finals with three different national teams in 1998-2002 and even made it to the semi-finals in 1998 and 2002.

Russia played in the qualifying group E . In the first eight games the Russians remained unbeaten, in this phase only the two games against the eventual group winners Croatia and the home game against Israel could not be won. In September / October 2007 followed the two games against the main competitor for qualification alongside Croatia, England . The clashes were considered to be the group's finals in the run-up to the game: after eight match days, Russia, second in the group, was one point ahead of the English, while the fourth-placed Israelis had already played the ninth matchday.

The first game at the new Wembley Stadium was disastrous, in particular the defense, which had been strong up until then, was not able to cope with the brilliant two-time goalscorer Owen , and so they won 3-0 and were ousted by England to become the only place eligible for qualification .

The second leg a month later in the Moscow Olympic Stadium in front of 84,700 spectators had to be won, but despite an assault on the English goal in the first few minutes, it was the guests who were in the lead through Rooney after half an hour and thus the Russian game up to Break out of rhythm. It was only when Pawlyuchenko came on to bring the Russians back into play, first he converted a controversial penalty in the 69th, and then four minutes later a ricocheting attempt by A. Beresuzkis to score a 2-1 winner. After the victory, Russia was two points behind the English in a less played game and could have qualified with two victories against the already eliminated Israelis and Andorra without points.

But despite oppressive superiority in Tel Aviv, Russia lost the game in stoppage time after a counter goal by the Israelis, which meant that Russia could no longer qualify on its own, but had to hope for an away win for Croatia at Wembley while simultaneously winning in Andorra. The Russians were able to win their own game after a miserable game against amateur footballers despite a penalty missed by Kolodin immediately before the break and a dismissal against the star of the Arshavin team thanks to a hit by Sychev . At Wembley, the Croatians led 2-0 after just 14 minutes, the English constantly increased the pressure on the Croatian goal, but it took about an hour for Lampard and Crouch to equalize within nine minutes. Now England retreated on the defensive as it would have been qualified with only one point due to better direct comparison with Russia, which the Croats their way to the 3: 2 victory by Petrić paved and later as a tactical blunder and embarrassed referred was .

Game results

date	Venue	opponent	Result	Goal scorers
09/06/2006	Moscow	Croatia	0-0
07/10/2006	Moscow	Israel	1: 1 (1: 0)	1: 0 Arshavin (5th), 1: 1 Shushan (84th)
10/11/2006	St. Petersburg	Estonia	2: 0 (0: 0)	1-0 Pogrebnjak (70th), 2-0 Sychev (90 + 1.)
11/15/2007	Skopje	Macedonia	2: 0 (2: 0)	1-0 Bystrow (18th), 2-0 Arshavin (32nd)
03/24/2007	Tallinn	Estonia	2: 0 (2: 0)	1-0 Bystrow (66th), 2-0 Kerschakow (78th)
03/28/2007	Moscow	Andorra	4: 0 (2: 0)	1: 0, 2: 0, 3: 0 Kerchakov (8th, 16th, 49th), 4: 0 Sychov (71st)
06/06/2007	Zagreb	Croatia	0-0
09/08/2007	Moscow	Macedonia	3: 0 (1: 0)	1: 0 W. Beresuzki (6th), 2: 0 Arshavin (83rd), 3: 0 Kerzhakov (86th)
09/12/2007	London	England	0: 3 (0: 2)	0: 1, 0: 2 Owen (7th, 31st), 0: 3 Rio Ferdinand
10/17/2007	Moscow	England	2: 1 (0: 1)	0: 1 Rooney (29th), 1: 1, 2: 1 Pavlyuchenko
11/17/2007	Tel Aviv	Israel	1: 2 (0: 1)	1: 0 Barda (10th), 1: 1 Biljaletdinow (61st), 1: 2 Golan (90 + 2nd)
11/21/2007	Andorra la Vella	Andorra	1: 0 (1: 0)	1-0 Sychev (71st)

preparation

Russia's preparation began at the end of March with a disaster in the only preparation game against another European Championship finalist, Romania . Completely inferior, if not with the best squad, they lost 3-0 in Bucharest .

The first preliminary line-up of 25 players was named on May 13, 2008 with only one player who is not under contract in the Russian league. With the nomination, Hiddink announced that he might still be nominating players from Zenit Saint Petersburg based on their performance in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup final , but the then considered Denisov rejected his nomination.

The last test before the final determination of the squad was played against Kazakhstan before leaving for the training camp on May 24th in Moscow . With hits from all attackers, a 6-0 victory was achieved , but only with three lucky goals in the last five minutes of the game was so clear.

The next day we went to a training camp in Rottach-Egern , Bavaria , and the Russian test matches during the training camp against Serbia and Latvia were held in the Wacker Arena run by the German regional list Wacker Burghausen .

Hiddink announced the final roster on May 27, one day before UEFA's deadline. As expected by the trade press, the two midfielders Oleg Ivanov from Krylya Sovetov Samara and Alexander Pavlenko from Spartak Moscow were eliminated from the squad.

The Russians deserved to win both preparation games in Burghausen, but they showed great weaknesses in defense. The first game against Serbia was overshadowed by an early injury-related replacement of the goalscorer to 1-0 Pogrebnjak . The top scorer of the 2007/08 UEFA Cup suffered a knee injury that proved so severe that the euro was canceled for the finals and on the day of the opening of the tournament by midfielder Ivanov von Samara, who was a possible substitute during the entire tournament Preparation with the squad Hiddinks had trained was replaced.

Preparation games

date	Venue	opponent	Result	Goal scorers
03/26/2008	Bucharest	Romania	0: 3 (0: 1)	1-0 Marica (45th), 2-0 D. Niculae (61st), 3-0 M. Niculae (75th)
05/23/2008	Moscow	Kazakhstan	6: 0 (2: 0)	1-0 Pogrebnjak (26th, hand penalty ), 2-0 Bystrow (45th), 3-0 Syrjanow (59th), 4-0 Biljaletdinow (85th, penalty kick ), 5-0 Torbinski (89th), 6th : 0 Sychev (90.)
05/28/2008	Burghausen	Serbia	2: 1 (1: 1)	1-0 Pogrebnjak (12th), 1: 1 Pantelić (40th) 2: 1 Pavlyuchenko (48th)
06/04/2008	Burghausen	Lithuania	4: 1 (1: 1)	0: 1 Savenas (24th), 1: 1 Syrjanow (33rd), 2: 1 Arshavin (52nd), 3: 1 Pavlyuchenko (64th), 4: 1 Bystrov (80th)

Russian contingent

With the exception of Sajenko from the German Bundesliga club Nuremberg, Hiddink only selected players from the Russian Premier League for the squad . At the time the squad was reported to UEFA, the average age of the squad was 26 years and three months, which is younger than the squads of any of the other finalists.

The team lacks real top stars, and the two top attackers of the Russian UEFA Cup winner Zenit Saint Petersburg were missing in the first games: Arshavin was suspended for the first two games. Pogrebnjak injured himself in the preparatory game against Serbia, Oleg Ivanov was nominated for him .

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the European Championship	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Igor Akinfeev	CSKA Moscow	04/08/1986	5	0	0	0	0
12	Vladimir Gabulov	FK Dynamo Moscow	October 19, 1983	0	0	0	0	0
16	Vyacheslav Malafeyev	Zenit Saint Petersburg	03/04/1979	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Vasily Berezuzky	CSKA Moscow	06/20/1982	2	0	0	0	0
3	Renat Janbayev	Moscow locomotive	04/07/1984	0	0	0	0	0
4th	Sergei Ignashevich	CSKA Moscow	07/14/1979	4th	0	0	0	0
5	Alexei Berezuzky	CSKA Moscow	06/20/1982	0	0	0	0	0
8th	Denis Kolodin	FK Dynamo Moscow	01/11/1982	4th	0	2	0	0
18th	Yuri Schirkow	CSKA Moscow	08/20/1983	5	0	2	0	0
22nd	Alexander Anyukov	Zenit Saint Petersburg	09/28/1982	5	0	0	0	0
midfield player
7th	Dmitri Torbinski	Moscow locomotive	04/28/1984	3	1	2	0	0
11	Sergei Semak	Rubin Kazan	02/27/1976	5	0	0	0	0
13	Oleg Ivanov	Krylya Sovetov Samara	08/04/1986	0	0	0	0	0
14th	Roman Shirokov	Zenit Saint Petersburg	07/06/1981	1	0	0	0	0
15th	Diniyar Biljaletdinov	Moscow locomotive	02/27/1985	5	0	1	0	0
17th	Konstantin Syrjanow	Zenit Saint Petersburg	05.10.1977	5	1	0	0	0
20th	Igor Semschow	FK Dynamo Moscow	04/06/1978	5	0	0	0	0
23	Vladimir Bystrov	Spartak Moscow	01/31/1984	2	0	0	0	0
striker
6th	Roman Adamow	FK Moscow	06/21/1982	1	0	0	0	0
9	Ivan Sajenko	1. FC Nuremberg	10/17/1983	4th	0	1	0	0
10	Andrei Arshavin	Zenit Saint Petersburg	05/29/1981	3	2	1	0	0
19th	Roman Pavlyuchenko	Spartak Moscow	December 15, 1981	5	3	0	0	0
21st	Dmitri Sychev	Moscow locomotive	10/26/1983	3	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Guus Hiddink		11/08/1946

course

On June 4th, immediately after the last friendly against Lithuania , Russia moved into the EM quarters in Leogang, Austria .

Preliminary round

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Spain	8: 3	9
2	Russia	4: 4	6th
3	Sweden	3: 4	3
4th	Greece	1: 5	0

In the preliminary round, the reigning European champions Greece and Spain faced two teams in Group D , which they had already met in Group A at the Euro 2004 , as well as Sweden .

Spain - Russia 4: 1 (2: 0)

Spain	4: 1 (2: 0)		Russia
1st matchday Tuesday, June 10, 2008, 6:00 p.m. CEST, Tivoli-Neu ( Innsbruck ) Spectators: 30,772 (sold out) Referee: Konrad Plautz (Austria)
Iker Casillas  - Sergio Ramos , Carlos Marchena , Carles Puyol , Joan Capdevila - David Silva (77th Xabi Alonso ), Marcos Senna , Xavi , Andrés Iniesta (63rd Santi Cazorla ) - David Villa , Fernando Torres (54th Cesc Fàbregas ) coach : Luis Aragonés		Igor Akinfejew - Alexander Anjukow , Roman Shirokov , Denis Kolodin , Yuri Shirkov - Dmitri Sychev (46. Vladimir Bystrov , 70. Roman Adamov ), Konstantin Zyryanov , Sergei Semak  , Igor Semshov (58. Dmitri Torbinski ) Dinijar Bilyaletdinov - Roman Pavlyuchenko coach : Guus Hiddink
1: 0 David Villa (20th) 2: 0 David Villa (44th) 3: 0 David Villa (75th) 4: 1 Cesc Fàbregas (90th + 1)		3: 1 Roman Pavlyuchenko (86.)

Greece - Russia 0: 1 (0: 1)

Greece	0: 1 (0: 1)		Russia
2nd matchday Saturday, June 14, 2008, 8:45 p.m. CEST, EM Stadium Wals-Siezenheim ( Salzburg ) Spectators: 31,063 (sold out) Referee: Roberto Rosetti (Italy)
Antonios Nikopolidis - Georgios Seitaridis (40. George Karagounis ), Traianos Dellas , Sotirios Kyrgiakos , Vassilios Torosidis - Kostas Katsouranis , Angelos Basinas , Christos Patsatzoglou - Charisteas , Nikos Liberopoulos (61. Theofanis Gekas ), Ioannis Amanatidis (80. Stelios Giannakopoulos ) Trainer: Otto Rehhagel		Igor Akinfejew - Alexander Anjukow , Denis Kolodin , Sergei Ignashevich , Yuri Shirkov (87. Vasily Berezutsky ) - Dmitri Torbinski , Konstantin Zyryanov , Sergei Semak  , Igor Semshov , Dinijar Bilyaletdinov (70 Ivan Saenko ) - Roman Pavlyuchenko Coach: Guus Hiddink
		0: 1 Konstantin Syrjanow (33.)
Giorgos Karagounis (42nd), Nikos Liberopoulos (58th)		Ivan Sajenko (77th), Dmitri Torbinski (84th)

Russia - Sweden 2: 0 (1: 0)

Russia	2: 0 (1: 0)		Sweden
3rd matchday Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 8:45 p.m. CEST, Tivoli-Neu ( Innsbruck ) Spectators: 30,772 (sold out) Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium)
Igor Akinfejew - Alexander Anjukow , Sergei Ignashevich , Denis Kolodin , Yuri Shirkov - Sergei Semak  - Konstantin Zyryanov , Igor Semshov , Dinijar Bilyaletdinov (66 Ivan Saenko ) - Roman Pavlyuchenko (90. Vladimir Bystrov ), Andrei Arshavin Coach: Guus Hiddink		Andreas Isaksson - Fredrik Stoor , Olof Mellberg , Petter Hansson , Mikael Nilsson (79th Marcus Allbäck ) - Johan Elmander , Daniel Andersson (56th Kim Källström ), Anders Svensson , Freddie Ljungberg  - Henrik Larsson , Zlatan Ibrahimović Trainer: Lars Lagerbäck
1: 0 Roman Pavlyuchenko (24th) 2: 0 Andrei Arshavin (50th)
Sergei Semak (57th), Andrei Arshavin (65th), Denis Kolodin (76th)		Andreas Isaksson (10th), Johan Elmander (49th)

Knockout round

Quarter-finals: Netherlands 1-3 Russia aet (1-1, 0-0)

Netherlands	1: 3 a.d. (1: 1, 0: 0)		Russia
Quarter-finals 3 Saturday, June 21, 2008, 8:45 p.m. CEST, St. Jakob-Park ( Basel ) Spectators: 38,374 (sold out) Referee: Ľuboš Micheľ (Slovakia)
Edwin van der Sar - Khalid Boulahrouz (54th Johnny Heitinga ), André Ooijer , Joris Mathijsen , Giovanni van Bronckhorst - Nigel de Jong , Orlando Engelaar (62nd Ibrahim Afellay ) - Dirk Kuyt (46th Robin van Persie ), Rafael van der Vaart , Wesley Sneijder - Ruud van Nistelrooy Trainer: Marco van Basten		Igor Akinfejew - Alexander Anjukow , Sergei Ignashevich , Denis Kolodin , Yuri Shirkov - Sergei Semak - Ivan Saenko (81. Dmitri Torbinski ), Igor Semshov (69th Dinijar Bilyaletdinov ), Konstantin Zyryanov - Andrei Arshavin , Roman Pavlyuchenko (115th Dmitri Sychev ) Trainer: Guus Hiddink
1: 1 Ruud van Nistelrooy (86.)		0: 1 Roman Pavlyuchenko (56th) 1: 2 Dmitri Torbinsky (112th) 1: 3 Andrei Arshavin (116th)
Khalid Boulahrouz (50.), Robin van Persie (55.), Rafael van der Vaart (60.)		Denis Kolodin (71.) *, Juri Schirkow (103.), Dmitri Torbinski (111.) *

* second yellow card, suspended in the semi-finals.

Semi-finals: Russia 0-3 Spain (0-0)

Russia	0: 3 (0: 0)		Spain
Semi-final 2 Thursday, June 26, 2008, 8:45 p.m. CEST, Ernst-Happel-Stadion ( Vienna ) Spectators: 51,428 (sold out) Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium)
Igor Akinfejew - Alexander Anjukow , Vasily Berezutsky , Sergei Ignashevich , Yuri Shirkov - Sergei Semak  - Konstantin Zyryanov , Igor Semshov (56th Dinijar Bilyaletdinov ), Ivan Saenko (57th Dmitri Sychev ) - Roman Pavlyuchenko , Andrei Arshavin Coach: Guus Hiddink		Iker Casillas  - Sergio Ramos , Carlos Marchena , Carles Puyol , Joan Capdevila - Andrés Iniesta , Marcos Senna , Xavi (69th Xabi Alonso ), David Silva - David Villa (34th Cesc Fàbregas ), Fernando Torres (69th Daniel Güiza ) coach : Luis Aragonés
		0: 1 Xavi (50.) 0: 2 Daniel Güiza (73.) 0: 3 David Silva (82.)
Juri Schirkow (56.), Dinijar Biljaletdinow (60.)

Web links

• Information and news about the Russian selection at Euro 2008 ( Memento from May 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) on the Euro 2008 website . ( German )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ They were eliminated as third party after a 0-0 draw against Slovakia on the last day of the match.
2. ↑ " England vs. Russia: Final before the European Football Championship ”, preliminary report on the game by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti , from September 12, 2007, 18:34 UTC ( visited on May 17, 2008 ).
3. ↑ " Overview: Croatia effortlessly - Slovakia duped - Greeks draw France 0: 1, Italy wins ", message from the kicker for the ninth matchday of the European Championship qualification on September 13, 2007 ( visited on May 17, 2008 ).
4. ↑ Phil McNulty: " Russia 2-1 England ", BBC report of October 17, 2007 ( visited May 17, 2008 ).
5. ↑ [Turkey, Sweden and Portugal qualified - England in the valley of tears], message from the kicker on the last day of the European Championship qualification ( visited on May 17, 2008 ).
6. ↑ Pavo Prskalo: " Drama in Wembley - The English Nightmare ", Spiegel Online from November 22, 2007 ( visited May 17, 2008 ).
7. ^ " Russia without a chance in Romania ( Memento of May 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive )", report on the Euro 2008 website from Wednesday, March 26, 2008 ( visited on May 29, 2008 ).
8. ↑ " Denisov cancels for EURO ( Memento of May 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive )", report on the Euro 2008 website from Monday, May 19, 2008 ( visited on May 29, 2008 ).
9. ↑ ^{a b} Russian national team - games always start at 7 p.m. , report on the Wacker Burghausen website from May 14, 2008 ( visited May 29, 2008 ).
10. ↑ Igor Rabiner " Wtschera Gus Chiddink objawil, chto na Euro 2008 ne pojedut Oleg Ivanov i Alexander Pavlenko. ( Memento of the original from May 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ", Sport-Express of May 28, 2008, p. 1.