BASEL, June 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian national team play Holland at Euro 2008 on Saturday evening as Guus Hiddink looks to lead Russia to victory against his homeland and a place in the semifinals.
Russia made the quarterfinals after beating Sweden 2-0 on Wednesday, turning in possibly their best performance since the split up of the U.S.S.R. in the process. The only negative point is that Russia should have scored more.
Holland meanwhile have steamrolled their way to the last eight, beating Italy 3-0, France 4-1, and Romania 2-0 in their group games.
While Holland are firm favorites, many pundits are tipping Russia to pull off an upset. Some 85,000 Dutch fans are expected to attend the match, to be played in the Swiss city of Basel. Around 5,000 Russian fans are expected.
Guus Hiddink has revealed that he would sing the words to the Russian anthem before the game, "If I knew the words."
"We have reached our goal, which was not easy, which was to qualify for the quarterfinals," Hiddink earlier told journalists.
"But we are not satisfied with that because I want Russian football and the Russian team to make its progress step by step. Now we are going to look for the next step," he added.
Whatever happens on Saturday evening, Hiddink has restored Russian pride in its national team, for so long the cause of disappointment and shame.
The game kicks off at 8.45pm local time (10.45pm Moscow time). It will be shown live on the First Channel.
