Arshavin stars as Russia reach semis

Russia: Celebrate Arshavin's goal

Guus Hiddink's side were by far the better side throughout the game against his countrymen and he will deservedly lead the Russians out in the last four against either Italy or Spain on Thursday.

It looked as though they had done enough to win in normal time when Roman Pavlyuchenko got across Joris Mathijsen at the near post to fire Sergei Semak's left-footed cross past Edwin van der Sar after 56 minutes.

But with just four minutes of normal time remaining, Ruud van Nistelrooy headed home Wesley Sneijder's free-kick from close range to take the game into extra time.

The Russians were much the more attacking throughout the 90 minutes and only the brilliance of van der Sar, who pulled off stunning saves to deny Arshavin and Denis Kolodin in the first half, kept them in the game.

Russia continued to attack in extra time with Pavlyuchenko's fierce drive cannoning off the top of the crossbar, while Torbinsky poked tamely at goal from just eight yards out.

And they continued to press in the second period of extra time and were unlucky to see penalty claims waved away.

But they did not have long to wait before they regained the lead when Arshavin weaved some magic down the left and dinked in a cross which took out van der Sar and left Torbinsky with the simple task of tapping in from two yards.

Holland looked stunned, but they could have no complaints and it was no surprise when Arshavin scored the goal he so richly deserved to seal the win when he raced onto a long throw-in to rifle the ball between van der Sar's legs.