Russia reached quarter final of Euro 2008 after defeating Sweden 2-0 in a really entertaining match. It was a superb performance by Guss Hiddink boys. From the very beginning, Russia took the control of the match thanks to their excellent athleticism on the field. Almost all the players were up to the mark and did what needed exactly on the right time.
Strikers Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko started threatening in the Swedish defense and I would not wonder if Russia recoded a victory with a bigger margin. However, to be honest, Sweden also created some clear chances, but Russian defense and their goal keeper were up to the mark. In the 24th minute of the game, Roman Pavlyuchenko scored for Russia. The goal came as a confidence booster as Russia appeared with their more attacking form after their first goal. However, Sweden was a bit unlucky as Larsen head hit the bar in the first half. At the half time, Russia was leading 1-0 and it was expected that Sweden will come all out attack in the second half.
However, Russian doubled their lead thanks to an excellent goal from Andrei Arshavin in the 50th minute of the match. Sweden tired to come back in the match and also created some clear chances as well. However, as I mentioned earlier that Russian defense was up to the mark and Sweden striker could not break their defense. Rather, very often Russia created some excellent cahcnes from the counter attack. Russia could have won the match by 4 or 5 goals if Arshavin and Pavlyuchenko could capitalize the chances. In fact, in the last few minutes of the match, Russia got at least two clear chances to score. Overall, I think, Russia deserved the victory and Guss Hiddink must be happy with the performance of his boys against Sweden. Now, let us see if Russia can continue their impressive form against Italy in the quarter final.
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