Spain 3 Russia 0JUST A day or so after Arsene Wenger had lamented the fact that Arsenal's Champions League defeat of Milan may have alerted the continent's big clubs to the talent he has nurtured in north London, the Frenchman can't have been completely thrilled by this, a European Championships semi-final in which an inspired performance by Cesc Fabregas was critical to Spain securing victory.
Second-half goals from Xavi, Daniel Guiza and David Silva secured the win but the young Arsenal midfielder's brilliance was the real difference between the two sides with the 21-year-old at the heart of almost everything good Luis Aragones' men did on the way to securing a meeting with Germany in Sunday evening's final, some 44 years after they won this title in Madrid.
Fabregas had started the night on the bench once again but was called early into the action because of an injury to David Villa. It was one of the night's most remarkable aspects that replacing the tournament's top scorer with an attacking midfielder, not viewed by the team's coach as being quite good enough to merit a place in the starting line-up, could have such a positive impact on the game.
The other was that Russia's Andrei Arshavin, of whom so much had been expected, could have performed quite so poorly.
Just as they had done in Innsbruck a couple of weeks back the two sides faced each other against a dramatic electrical storm but on the pitch it was far more subdued stuff this time around.
Only six of the Russian starters from the original encounter kept their place for last night's match and for a while the defensive improvement they have shown in the games since was maintained.
With Denis Kolodin, one of two Russians banned last night, CSKA Moscow's Vasili Berezutsky came in to partner Sergei Ignashevich in the area where most evidence of continuing improvement was required. And the pair did well initially with Berezutsky's close attention making life particularly difficult for Fernando Torres until the Spanish were forced into a rethink when Villa injured himself while taking a free from just outside the area and had to be replaced.
On came Fabregas and, as he had done in earlier games, the Arsenal midfielder immediately injected more life into the Spanish midfield. Torres now faced the challenge of playing as a lone striker but behind him there was a lot more movement with Sergio Ramos' enthusiasm for getting forward from the right-back position adding to an already impressive array of attacking options.
The Russians, in contrast, were making terribly little of the possession that came their way.
The key problem was clearly Arshavin who looked a shadow of the player who had inflicted such grievous damage on the Swedes and Dutch.
Here, perhaps as the result of an injury of some sort, he jogged around almost forlornly on the periphery of the action, occasionally looking annoyed when the ball wasn't given to him, but rarely making the sort of runs that had made him an obvious target for passes in the earlier outings.
When he did get on the ball there was rarely any attempt to take on opponents with the 27-year-old generally settling for attempting to play a team-mate in with a first-time ball and almost always misjudging it.
Instead, Russia's most threatening moves in the first half came when Ivan Saenko pushed forward down the right flank or Yuri Zhirkov provided an overlap on the left and neither happened often enough to cause much concern to the Spanish.
Their best chance, though, came courtesy of a Spanish defensive error and fell to Roman Pavlyuchenko whose curling shot flew narrowly wide of the target. Iker Casilias actually got a fingertip touch to the ball before it passed the post and, almost incredibly, it was as close as he came to making a real save all night until, the game all but over, a Dmitri Sychev header forced him into action late on.
It was all terribly disappointing from a side that had been so exciting to watch as they beat the Dutch in the last round. Worst of all, it made for an increasingly one-sided night as the Spanish gradually tightened their grip on things and, after the first goal, the Russians' heads went down.
The Xavi strike that gave the Spanish the lead five minutes into the second period was memorable in itself with the midfielder timing his run into the box perfectly to turn Andres Iniesta's shot through Igor Akinfeev's legs and home. The really wonderful part, though, was the 18-pass move that preceded it.
A Fabregas flick set up the second for Guiza after Sergio Ramos got forward down the right and the Arsenal player was again at the heart of things eight minutes from time when he picked up Iniesta's forward ball and played it square for Silva who slotted it low past Akinfeev from 10 yards.
The margin, in the end, was the same as when they last met but the Spanish performance was more controlled this time. Germany still stand in the way but last night, more than ever, they looked like a team that believe they are capable of ending the years of underachievement and bringing home a second European title.
RUSSIA:(4-4-1-1) Akinfeev; Anyiukov, V Berezzutsky, Ignashevich, Zhirkov; Saenko (Sychev, 57 mins), Semak, Semshov (Bilyaletdinov, 55 mins), Zyryanov; Arshavin; Pavlyuchenko.
SPAIN:(4-4-2) Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Puyol, Marchena, Capdevila; Silva, Senna, Xavi (Alonso, 68 mins), Iniesta; Villa (Fabregas, 33 mins), Torres (Guiza, 68 mins).
Referee:F De Bleeckere (Belgium).
