It was the Russia coach's tactical nuance which saw his side get one over his native country, writes Emmet Malone

THERE'S AN interesting lesson here for any Irish who still might wonder about Giovanni Trapattoni and the small matter of his potentially divided loyalties in the forthcoming World Cup campaign.

On the sideline during Saturday's quarter-final Guus Hiddink had never quite looked like a man in two minds about who he would like to see win. And afterwards, in a press conference delayed slightly by his opposite number's visit to the Russian dressingroom in order to wish them well in Vienna, the 61-year-old coach's satisfaction with the night's events was entirely plain to see.

Hiddink took the stage to applause from Russian reporters and a smattering of good humoured booing from members of the Dutch media. There was the smallest of bows for the Russians and a wry smile for the Dutch before he took his seat and recounted with rather brutal frankness how his side had secured its biggest victory since emerging as an independent entity from the break-up of the old Soviet Union.

In revealing how he had sought to counter this Dutch team's strengths, Hiddink said comfortably enough to justify the feeling back in the Netherlands that he had simply outwitted his younger and less experienced counterpart, Marco van Basten.

Dutch football journalists are notorious for turning post-match press conferences into ill-tempered debates over tactics or team selections but there was not the slightest hint of dissent as their countryman asserted that his team's execution of his game plan had helped to prevent their opponents from ever finding their stride. Nor as he concluded that, for him: "We were the better side technically, superior technically and stronger physically.

"Perhaps I am no longer being realistic, you can decide, but I know how the Dutch prepare and to come away from this game believing that we were better in all of these areas is a matter of great pride for me."

The reports of the game sent back to the Netherlands suggested the Dutch felt he was being entirely realistic with De Telegraaf observing sadly that the "The Dream is in Smithereens", before, in common with its rivals, hailing Hiddink as a true Dutch master.

Van Basten was impressively dignified in defeat, accepting without rancour that the Russians had been the better side and expressing only a slight sense of bewilderment that his own side had failed to perform. That expectations had been high in advance of the game was reflected by the fact that half of the country's 16 million inhabitants had watched it on TV.

The Dutch coach was disappointed for the supporters, he said, although the bulk of his sympathy was reserved for the retiring Edwin van der Sar. "He's a great goalkeeper and we wanted to give him a final to finish with but we couldn't do it," he sighed.

Inevitably, having paid tribute to all of his players, Hiddink found himself reflecting on the extraordinary talent of Andrei Arshavin, the Zenit St Petersburg player whose contribution had proved virtually decisive in this game.

"The thing I would say is that they are a group that learns quickly and reacts to what happens around them," he said. "To work with players like that is special and if I can do it then, as a professional, I am happy. On this occasion I had almost no time to prepare them tactically for the game but they still showed how well they could neutralise the strengths of their opponents and work to exploit their weaknesses."

As for Arshavin, he said: "He has the name, not from me, of being a difficult player but he has been wonderful to work with - he's a natural winner. He was short of game fitness before these last two matches but he has terrific skill. He knows how to score and how to dribble, how to play on the edge so that when opponents tackle him it's a penalty. It means that the defenders can run with him but they can't challenge him. He's a wonderful player to have in the team."

The 27-year-old was equally complimentary in return. "One Dutch coach beat 11 talented Dutch players," he beamed when he appeared in the mixed zone. "The coach said he expected the Dutch to play very aggressively against us but they ran out of breath before we did. At the end," he added, "the better Dutchman, our coach, won." Here's hoping we got the better Italian.