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Hiddink hails his 'unbelievable' heroes
by Paul Bryan from St. Jakob-Park
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Guus Hiddink celebrates at full time (¿Getty
Images)
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Russia coach Guus Hiddink once again stressed the pride
he felt in his players after they ousted the Netherlands from UEFA EURO
2008T with a 3-1 extra-time win in Saturday's quarter-final in Basel.
"We were better in all parts of the game," said the Dutchman,
whose opposite number Marco van Basten thought nerves had been a factor
in the Oranje not rediscovering their form from the group stage.
Guus Hiddink, Russia coach
I'm extremely proud of every member of the team. If you consider the preparation
time we had after the tough games against Greece and Sweden - when we
had two days to recover - we didn't complain a lot. We [prepared tactically]
for ten minutes yesterday and had a few meetings at the team hotel. After
90 minutes and then going into extra time, what they did was a tremendous
and unbelievable achievement. I haven't experienced this very much in
my career. The team was superior technically, in their control and in
their passing. Tactically and physically, in particular, we were superior
to the Dutch team. I don't want to sound arrogant but we were better in
all parts of the game. It was a blow when they got back to 1-1, especially
using the only weapon they had which was free-kicks.
There are some points of criticism. We committed too many fouls and were
too passive in our reaction to their free-kicks. Also, we can easily make
good combinations between midfield and defence but we can't finish off
our chances. I'm proud of all the players. These players are very coachable.
We saw in the Sweden game that [Arshavin] wasn't match-fit because of
his suspension but he's got tremendous skill and he's one of those players
who knows his game. Mentally he could have a bad attitude but he's not
like that at all. I knew from the time we qualified for the quarter-finals
that Red Square and other parts of Russia were filled with people. I have
seen tremendous joy all over Russia and that gives more responsibility
to the team - to give joy to many millions of Russians.
Marco van Basten, Netherlands coach
We didn't start well or play like we did in the first three games. I don't
know why that was, maybe it was nerves. We tried something different in
the second half with [Robin] van Persie playing further forward instead
of having [Dirk] Kuyt playing a bit deeper. Russia played well - their
attackers, Arshavin and [Roman] Pavlyuchenko, were always threatening
and that was the reason we didn't come into the game. We tried everything
and we got to 1-1 which gave us hope. We had to change Khalid Boulahrouz
because he wasn't good enough physically. We had problems physically.
The players couldn't give any more and the Russians in the final moments
were stronger. In the end we couldn't hold on any more and they scored
two goals and deserved their victory.
I wish them good luck in the last part of the tournament. I told them
that they played very well. They are in the last four so they have a great
chance. The way they play is good and they have good strikers and defenders.
[Looking back on the tournament] we played good football in the group
stage but we went into this game and didn't play. It's amazing we were
able to keep it at 0-0 for such a long time. In the end you always take
part to win and the group stage is important, but today we didn't have
a good day. They played last Wednesday while most of our players have
had a week to prepare, so you think physically we are more in shape than
the Russians but we didn't see that today.
Euro2008.com,
22 June 2008
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