Third Semi-Finalist - Russia In 1988, Marco van Basten's goal in the final brought the Netherlands their only European championship against the Soviet Union, but the former striker's bid to become the first player to win the tournament as a manager was ended byfellow Dutchman Guus Hiddink's Russia.
Netherlands topped the "group of death", winning all their games and scoring nine goals, but came against an opponent that put up a bigger fight than either world champions Italy or World Cup finalists France in the group stage.
Russia was on the front foot from the start and striker Roman Pavlyuchenko wasted a free header in the penalty area within the first ten minutes of the match.
Beaten by Spain 4:1 in their opening game, Russia looked a different team in the past two games since the return from suspension of Andrei Arshavin, who was at the heart of every dangerous move for his team. Only the great reflexes of Edwin van der Sar kept the scoresheet unchanged in the first half.
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At the other end, Dutch players had a torrid time, with Russia constantly pressing when without the ball. The Dutch rarely ventured out wide, preferring insted to pummel their opponents' defence through the middle, but it yielded little result.
Still, should either Andre Ooijer or Ruud van Nistelrooy been quicker in getting to the ball to take advantage of some good crosses, Netherlands would have gone into the break ahead, allowing them to play the counter-attacking style of football that made the Dutch the early favourites to lift the trophy.
Instead, it was Russia that opened the scoring, Pavlyuchenko tapping in Sergei Semak's cross ten minutes after the restart. Not satisfied with taking the lead, Russia continued attacking van der Sar's goal, while a frustrated Dutch side was left trying their luck with long-range efforts.
And yet, despite the disappointment, Russia would not concede initiative and looked the fresher team in extra time, with Arshavin, Pavlyuchenko and substitute Dmitry Torbinski all going close to scoring against a tiring Dutch side.
It looked increasingly likely that it would take spot kicks to separate the two sides on the night, a situation the Dutch seemed ready to accept, when Russia struck in the 112th minute. Arshavin chased a long ball to the goal line, lobing a ball over van der Sar that three Dutch defenders rushed to clear, buth Torbinsky got to it first, turning the ball from less than one metre.
Dejection was clearly visible on the faces of Dutch players and Russia took advantage to put the final result beyond doubt. Once again, Arshavin proved to be too quick for his marker and his volley flew into the net between van der Sar's legs, taking a slight deflection from John Heitinga.
The Dutch had opted to rest their starters for the final group game, which was still enough to defeat Romania, but in the end it was Russia who looked the fresher side throughout the match. Portugal and Croatia, who have fielded reserves in their last group matches as well, are already out of the tournament, which does not bode well for Spain, who take on Italy in the last quarterfinal on June 22.
