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UEFA EURO 2008: Hiddink gets his show of character

/noticias.info/ Diniyar Bilyaletdinov hailed Russia's "immense will" after they won 1-0 against Greece although captain Sergei Semak said they "should have scored more".

Mixed tempo
Saturday's victory in Salzburg left Russia needing to beat Sweden in their Group D finale to reach the last eight, following a 4-1 opening reverse against Spain, and FC Lokomotiv Moskva midfielder Bilyaletdinov sounded optimistic. "We showed immense will and took our chances," he said. "We tried to mix up the tempo because you can't attack for the whole match. We cooled things down at times and I think that is what made things work in the end."

Inspiring words
The 23-year-old asked to be substituted late on because he "took a knock and didn't want to let the team down because of my condition", but he was confident of being back for the Sweden showdown in Innsbruck. The Lokomotiv captain also revealed what coach Guus Hiddink had said to his side before kick-off. "He said we can play football and we have proved that, but he asked us to show character and our best qualities."

Set-piece danger
Russia certainly did that, although FC Rubin Kazan midfielder Semak conceded it was not quite a flawless display. "It was a good match," he said. "Of course, we should have scored more and then the next match would have been easier, but we were not bad. Today, what is most important is that we were better defensively. Greece were also different [from Spain]. They hit more long balls, trying to exploit their height advantage. The set-pieces were very dangerous".

Splendid assist
The 32-year-old Semak could take much credit for the Russian success, having set up the only goal for Konstantin Zyryanov with a beautifully executed overhead kick. "It's not important how I got the ball to him – the important thing is that it turned out to be the final pass and we scored," he said. "Kostya [Zyryanov] also did a great job. Then we had many more chances, with Roman Pavlyuchenko having some excellent opportunities to score."

'Not much time'
Semak also took time to thank the supporters who had backed the side, adding: "It was a great game. It was a play-off match, a survival match, and we had our backs against the wall." He continued: "Guus Hiddink said we did a good job, but everything will be decided in the next match. The Sweden game will be the big one. On Sunday there will be no day off, but a recovery session in the evening. We have three days until the next match. There is not much time. We will rest after the EURO."
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