Hiddink the only happy Dutchman in Basel

By Mike Collett - Analysis

BASEL (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of orange-clad Dutch fans came to party in Switzerland on Saturday but only one was left celebrating at the end of a gripping Euro 2008 quarter-final between Netherlands and Russia.

Dutchman Guus Hiddink masterminded his adopted country's 3-1 extra time win over his homeland with a performance that saw Russia beat Netherlands at their own slick-passing game.

While the 61-year-old got his tactics spot on, counterpart Marco Van Basten looked on in anguish as his Dutch team failed to reproduce the sparkling form that yielded three wins in a row in the group stages.

Hiddink's instructions were carried out brilliantly by man of the match Andrei Arshavin, who created one goal and scored another.

Before the tournament Hiddink said he thought long and hard about whether to include Arshavin in the squad because he was suspended for the opening two Group D games against Spain and Greece.

But his decision was fully vindicated as Arshavin ran the show and along with Roman Pavlyuchenko and Konstantin Zyryanov helped put Hiddink's plan into action, securing the victory that means Russia will meet Italy or Spain in the semi-finals in Vienna on Thursday.

Arshavin said: "One Dutch coach beat 11 talented Dutch players. It's a great happiness for me and for the whole of Russia.

"The coach said he expected the Dutch would play very aggressively against us but it turned out they ran out of breath before we did. At the end the better Dutchman, our coach, won."