Torbinski, bottom, and Pavlyuchenko celebrate the first of two goals in extra-time [Reuters]

Goals from substitute Dmitry Torbinski and playmaker Andrei Arshavin finished off a subdued Netherlands team in the extra period on Saturday after the teams finished level at 1-1 on 90 minutes.

"It's unbelievable what they did tactically," Guus Hiddink, Russia's Dutch coach, said.

"To outplay tactically and physically the Dutch team is almost a miracle. I challenged the guys. Physically, tactically and technically we were better than the Dutch."

Arshavin said: "One Dutch coach beat 11 talented Dutch players.

"It's great happiness for me and for the whole of Russia. It was a hard game but we can't complain.

"The main thing is we won. We expected Netherlands to play aggressively but they seemed to stop before we did."

Second-half lead

Russia took a deserved lead through Roman Pavlyuchenko 11 minutes into the second half but were pegged back by a Ruud van Nistelrooy header with just four minutes remaining.

The Netherlands came into the match at St Jakob Park as strong favourites after winning all three of their group stage matches.

But Russia had the better of the opening exchanges and could have taken an eighth minute lead if Pavlyuchenko had got a firm header on Igor Semshov's cross.

As the first half wore on, Netherlands had several decent chances with Van Nistelrooy missing three good chances.

The forward just failed to get an outstretched foot on to an inswinging Rafael van der Vaart free kick and was then denied twice at close range by goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev.

Counter-attack

The Russians continued to look dangerous on the break and centre-back Denis Kolodin kept Edwin van der Sar busy in the Dutch goal with some fierce long range efforts.

Hiddink is only two games away from taking Russia to Euro 2008 glory [Reuters]

The second half started tensely until Russia broke the deadlock with a well worked move down the left.

Sergei Semak was the provider, playing a perfectly weighted pass to Pavlyuchenko who shook off defender Joris Mathijsen before firing a left-foot shot into the bottom corner.

The Dutch attempted to press forward but squandered further chances, most notably when Robin van Persie wasted a 72nd minute free kick from the edge of the area.

With even the normally boisterous Dutch fans starting to despair, Van Nistelrooy finally came good, stealing in at the far post to head home a swinging Wesley Sneijder free kick to send the match into extra time.

Russia again looked sharpest and were unlucky not to restore their lead in the 97th minute when Pavlyuchenko struck the bar with a fierce strike.

But Russia's pressure soon bore fruit as Torbinski made it 2-1 after 112 minutes when he stabbed home a perfect cross from the excellent Arshavin at the far post.

The Russian playmaker then finished off the Dutch with a low shot inside the area that flew past Van der Sar with the aid of a slight deflection after he turned sharply inside the area.

Hiddink led South Korea to a surprising semi-final place at the 2002 World Cup and Australia into the second round four years later.

Now, his latest team is just two games away from taking the European trophy with another unfancied team.

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