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Two sides that played group D opening match will meet again, this time with much more at stake. Spain and Russia are fighting for the finals of the European championship which is a surprising course of events in this championship that is filled with various twists and turns and excellent outsider performances.

Spain won the first game easily, 4:1 which led us all to think that Russians will as usually be sitting ducks for their rivals. But, after that failure, Hiddink’s squad got serious, managed to win current champions, Greece and then fight their way to the second round in and excellent game against Sweden.

The rest is history; triumph over Netherlands is certainly a good message for Spain: Russians can match any European squad. But let us get back to the opening game, when Russia paid for being naive; they started the match with their guard down, missed a couple of chances and got cruel punishment.

The loose defense was a suicide, Villa and Torres had many one-on-one situations which they solved easily. The result were four goals behind excellent Akinfeev’s back.

Now we are in for a completely different game; Russia learned their lesson which doesn’t mean that they will only defend; however it is clear that Hiddink will ask his players to be very aggressive and try not to let Red Fury attackers to take the ball thirty yards away from the net.

Italians have shown the way a squad should defend against Aragones’ side but luck turned its back on them in the penalty roulette. Russians are more creative, Arshavin contributes a lot, not only to the speed but also to materialisation, so we will clearly see a very uncertain match where Russians stand some chance of winning.

Spain deserved to get to the semi-finals; they were more eager to win against Azzurri though the attack's efficiency was miserable.

Head-to-heads

Spain and Russia (including Soviet Union) have met each other on nine previous occasions with Spain winning five times and Russia only once. The sole defeat for Spain came in a European Championship qualifier in 1971 with the Soviets winning 2-1.

Spain have won all three previous encounters at the European Championship, 2-1 in 1964, 1-0 in 2004 and 4-1 at Euro 2008.

This is the ninth time that two countries have met in the group phase and the knock-out stages of a European Championship or World Cup.

The only countries to win the knock-out encounter after first losing in the group phase are West Germany against Hungary at the 1954 World Cup and the Netherlands against the Soviet Union at Euro 1988.

Team facts - Russia

Russia's Euro 2008 squad has won a total of 503 caps, fewer than any other country that was present at Euro 2008.

The average age of the Russian squad is also the youngest in this tournament. Their average age is 26 years and 99 days on the day of the semi-final.

However, head coach Guus Hiddink is vastly experienced in major tournaments. Euro 2008 is his fifth European Championship or World Cup. So far Hiddink has recorded 11 wins, equalling Dutch record holder Rinus Michels. Only Berti Vogts (12), Mario Zagallo (13), Luiz Felipe Scolari (16) and Helmut Schon (19) have won more matches in European Championships and World Cups combined.

Russia and Turkey became only the fifth and sixth countries to qualify for the European Championship semi-finals despite losing their first match in the group.

Team facts - Spain

Qualified for a European Championship semi-final for the third time. Spain went on to reach the final on the two previous occasions, in 1964 and 1984.

Unbeaten in 20 matches (17 wins and three draws) since losing to Romania (0-1) in November 2006. The Spanish record is 31 and was set between September 1994 and November 1997.

The second longest unbeaten streak was also set during the reign of coach Luis Aragones. Between August 2004 and June 2006, Spain remained unbeaten in 25 matches in a row.

Aragones is the oldest coach to lead a team to the semi-finals in a European Championship. He is 69 years and 334 days old on Thursday. The previous record holder was Otto Rehhagel, who was 65 years and 327 days old when Greece played in the last four of Euro 2004.

Player facts - Russia

By scoring three goals, Roman Pavlyuchenko has become Russia's joint top scorer in European Championships. He equalled Valentin Ivanov (1960-1964) and Viktor Ponedelnik (1960-1964).

Igor Akinfeev, Vyacheslav Malafeev, Aleksandr Anyukov, Vladimir Bystrov, Igor Semshov and Dmitri Sychev sat on the bench when Spain and Russia met at Euro 2004. Sychev made a substitute appearance.

Dmitriy Torbinskiy and Denis Kolodin are suspended for this match.

Player facts - Spain

Santi Cazorla has come on as a substitute for Andres Iniesta in every match at Euro 2008.

For some Spanish and Russian players this will be the fourth time they meet this season, including Euro 2008. When Villarreal CF were knocked out by Zenit St. Petersburg in the third round of the Uefa Cup, Joan Capdevila, Marcos Senna and Santi Cazorla faced Vyacheslav Malafeev, Aleksandr Anyukov, Roman Shirokov, Konstantin Zyryanov and Andrei Arshavin.

Miscellaneous Info

Belgian referee Frank De Bleeckere also controlled Russia's group match against Sweden (2-0) at Euro 2008.

Player to watch

Andrei Arshavin (Russia) : One of the big four leagues awaits the Russian maestro and he'll be keen to continue impressing prospective employers against Spain.

Marcos Senna (Spain) : The unsung hero of Spain's tournament so far, the Villarreal midfielder is a crucial component of the Spain set-up.

Possible Line Up :

Russia : Akinfeev, Zhirkov, Berezutskiy, Ignashevitch, Anyukov, Zyrianov, Semak, Semshov, Bilyaletdinov, Arshavin, Pavluchenko

Subs : R. Adamov, V. Malafeev, D. Sychev, V. Bystrov, I. Saenko, A. Berezutskiy, V. Gabulov, R. Shirokov, O. Ivanov, R. Yanbaev

Suspended : Kolodin, Torbinskiy 

Manager: Guus Hiddink

Captain: Sergueï Semak

Spain : Casillas, Ramos, Marchena, Puyol, Capdevila, Senna, Iniesta, Xavi, Silva, Villa, Torres

Subs : A. Palop, J. Reina, X. Alonso, F. Navarro, Juanito, D. Guiza, C. Fabregas, S. García, R. Albiol, S. Cazorla, Arbeloa, R. De la Red

Manager: Luis Aragonés

Captain: Iker Casillas

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