Holland frozen out

Holland joined the qualifying hotshots of Portugal and Croatia by going out of the European Championships this evening at the quarter-final stage. Well beaten in the end by a Russian side inspired by the return on of Andrei Arshavin and the prowess of Roman Pavlyuchenko. Luca Modric is already with Spurs and will entertain us next year but Arshavin must be a Premier League target now.

The Dutch failed to reach third gear for most of the match and looked strangely pedestrian compared with previous games. They missed the urgency of Arjen Robben. The Russians were not standing on ceremony and played with attacking intent throughout. They should have had the lead in the first half and certainly before they finally scored through a fine Pavlyuchenko finish after 56 minutes. Kolodin had two rasping shots saved by Van Der Saar before the Dutch finally rallied and Ruud Van Nistleroy forced himself onto a deep, deep free-kick to head the equaliser and send the game into extra time. I thought that this was the signal for the Dutch to up the ante and win the match but I was wrong. Russsia continued to press and the Dutch seemed unwillingly or unable to do anything about it.

Andrei Arshavin sealed Russian victory in the second period of extra time when he forced his way to the line and conjured a cross reminiscent of a Bjorn Borg lob which beat Van Der Saaar and landed so close to the foot of the far post that all that was required was contact from Torbinsky. Two-one, game over but Arshavin was allowed a personal triumph by the disconsulate Dutch as he followed a throw-in into the box before burying a near post shot to give the scoreline a better balance of the game.

It's a shame to see the Dutch knocked out but this is de rigeour for them in this competition and there will be no surprises if the Italians do the same to the Spanish tomorrow to leave an unfancied semi line-up of Germany v Turkey and Russia v Spain. Surprises apart it would be hard to see past a Germany v Spain final and the Germans could do it yet again.