Russia 3 Netherlands 1:ON A Saturday night packed with surprises in Basle, perhaps the most predictable thing was that Andrei Arshavin didn't make it along to collect his man-of-the-match award after the game. A performance of almost boundless energy and ingenuity from the 27-year-old had inspired the Russians to victory and attracted the attentions of the drug testers. Well, there was certainly very little to suggest that any Dutch needed to be detained.

Marco van Basten admitted afterwards that he shared the general sense of puzzlement around St Jakob Park over how his far better rested players could look so lethargic against a team that had only secured their place in the quarters three days earlier.

Clearly, though, his side was second best in every area of the pitch, with its defence - always a concern - cruelly exposed as substandard when confronted with the pace and precision passing of the Russians and its much more gifted attack kept at bay by the fierce work-rate of Guus Hiddink's men.

Though he grabbed the late equaliser that pushed the game into extra-time, Ruud van Nistelrooy passed most of the night anonymously in the shadow of Sergei Ignashevich. Behind him the Dutch attacking midfielders also found themselves smothered by the close attentions of opponents, particularly down the left where the Russians worked very hard to shut down what had in previous games been this Netherlands side's best line of supply.

Obliged to press on the other flank instead, Dirk Kuyt found himself engaged in an unpromising head-to-head clash with Yuri Zhirkov - described by his manager afterwards, without any great exaggeration on the strength of the evidence here, as one of the best left backs in Europe - and Van Basten was ultimately forced first to switch the Liverpool player with Wesley Sneijder then replace him altogether at the end of a half in which Russia had generally enjoyed the upper hand.

With Arjen Robben having picked up an injury in training, the Dutch were deprived of the sort of natural wing skills that might well have made a difference. As it was, their best spell came late in the first half but their better scoring chances came almost exclusively from set pieces which the Russians defended poorly without being punished.

The quality of Van Der Vaart's delivery on these occasions was consistently high but Van Nistelrooy, Nigel De Jong and, later on, Robin van Persie were amongst the team-mates who couldn't quite apply the required finish as the ball repeatedly dropped between a static defence and a stationary goalkeeper.

These were, however, about the only occasions on which the Russians could have been accused of lacking mobility. While their midfield chased and harried in support of the back four they were also swift to seize any opportunity to break.

Playing behind the team's lone striker, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Arshavin played the key role of orchestrating the Russian attacks with intuitive brilliance. His speed, ability to skip past challenges and eye for a killer pass proved a nightmare for the Dutch who looked hopelessly at sea in the full-back positions.

The unpredictability of the Russian attack also proved problematic with Zhirkov proving early on that he could test Van der Sar from frees, Denis Kolodin repeatedly unleashing fierce long-range shots and Pavlyuchenko establishing himself a menace around the box.

Long before the big striker had sidefooted home in the 56th minutes, following a fine move down the left by Arshavin and Sergei Semak, his side had looked the more likely to open the scoring with timely interventions by De Jong and a couple of really fine saves by Van der Sar preventing what looked sure-fire goals.

Van Basten conceded afterwards that it had been a surprise his side managed to stay level as long as they did and, with his side incapable of rediscovering the fluent counter-attacking game they produced against Italy and France, there might have been more before Van Nistelrooy provided a lifeline by converting Sneijder's angled free-kick four minutes from time.

There was some small sense that perhaps the Russians might be shaken by the setback but a compounding second blow was averted moments later when Kolodin was shown a second yellow for a challenge on Sneijder only for the linesman, with the defender already making his way off, to inform the referee the ball had already gone out of play for a goal kick. Replays, as it happens, also showed that the booking would have been harsh and so the 26-year-old deservedly stayed on.

Still at full strength numerically then and with, appropriately enough, a whole lot more gas left in the tank than their opponents, the Russians set about the task of regaining the lead in extra-time. Arshavin, by this stage, seemed to be toying with tired defenders at times while the Dutch, when they did win possession, no longer seemed capable of making any effective use of it.

One Russian attempt on goal followed another with Pavlyuchenko, whose shot came crashing back off the bar, going closest. The Dutch scraped by somehow but seven minutes from the end their luck ran out when Arshavin floated a brilliant cross from the left to the far post and Dmitri Torbinsky left Adre Ooijer and Johnny Heitinga trailing after him as he pounced to score. Within three minutes the place in the semi-finals was sealed when Ibrahim Afellay failed to control a simple kickout and from the resulting throw, Arshavin rounded off a wonderful night with a close-range shot that took a slight deflection off Heitinga's foot before slipping through Van Der Sar's legs and in.

It was time for the tens of thousands of Dutch fans to begin the painful process of coming to terms with defeat. In three of the last four European Championships they had watched their side go out on penalties. Here, at least, there was that small and rather strange consolation of knowing that on the night they had been beaten by comfortably the better side and, of course, one of their own.

NETHERLANDS (4-2-3-1): Van der Sar; Boulharouz (Heitinga, 54 mins), Oooijer, Mathijsen, Van Bronckhorst; de Jong, Engelaar (Afellay, 62 mins); Kuyt (Van Persie, half-time), Van der Vaart, Sneijder; Van Nistelrooy. Subs not used: Timmer, Stekelenburg, De Zeeuw, Robben, Melchiot, Bouma, De Cler, Huntelaar, Vennegoor of Hesselink. Booked: Boulahrouz, Van Persie, Van der Vaart.

RUSSIA (4-4-1-1): Akinfeev; Anyukov, Ignashevich, Kolodin, Zhirkov; Saenko (Torbinski, 81 mins), Semshov (Bilyaletdinov, 69 mins), Semak, Zyryanov; Arshavin; Pavlyuchenko (Sychev, 115 mins). Subs not used: Gabulov, Malafeev, Vasili Berezutsky, Yanbaev, Alexei Berezutsky, Adamov, Ivanov, Shirokov, Bystrov. Booked: Kolodin, Zhirkov, Torbinsky.

Referee: Lubos Michel (Slovakia).