UEFA EURO 2008 SEMI-FINAL
Date: Thu 26 June Kick-off: 1945 BST Venue: Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna
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Russia's players in high spirits as they prepare for the Spain match
Russia appear to have no injury worries after Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Ivan Sayenko and Alexander Anyukov all trained on Wednesday and looked fit.
The trio picked up knocks against The Netherlands, however, boss Guus Hiddink is without suspended pair Denis Kolodin and midfielder Dmitry Torbinski.
Spain, unbeaten in 20 games, are most likely to stick with the line-up that beat Russia in the group stage.
But midfielder Cesc Fabregas could yet oust Xavi for the role of playmaker.
Arsenal star Fabregas impressed after coming on as a substitute against Italy in their quarter-final and scored the decisive penalty in the shootout.
Spain look to have a full squad to choose from and coach Luis Aragones drilled the presumed starting players, led by strikers Fernando Torres and David Villa, in a practice match against the substitutes at Spain's base camp in Neustift on Tuesday.
Having beaten Russia 4-1 in their group meeting, the Spanish are slight favourites to book a place in the final against Germany - but Russia have improved markedly since then.
In place of key central defender Kolodin, Vasily Berezutsky is favourite to start alongside CSKA Moscow team-mate Sergei Ignashevich.
Fabregas has frequently impressed when coming off the bench
Much of the Russians' change in fortunes is down to the return from suspension of creative attacking midfielder Andrei Arshavin, who Barcelona are interested in signing from Zenit St Petersburg.
"Everyone has seen now that he is an outstanding player," said Russia coach Hiddink.
"He has a lot of qualities - good vision, his character is OK, he's a winner. So it's very joyful to work with him and watch how he is playing."
BIG MATCH STATS
Head-to-heads
Spain and Russia (including Soviet Union) have met each other on nine previous occasions with Spain winning five times and Russia only once. The sole defeat for Spain came in a European Championship qualifier in 1971 with the Soviets winning 2-1.
Head to head records and significant meetings
Spain have won all three previous encounters at the European Championship, 2-1 in 1964, 1-0 in 2004 and 4-1 at Euro 2008.
This is the ninth time that two countries have met in the group phase and the knock-out stages of a European Championship or World Cup.
The only countries to win the knock-out encounter after first losing in the group phase are West Germany against Hungary at the 1954 World Cup and the Netherlands against the Soviet Union at Euro 1988.
Nations meeting in group and KO phases of major finals
Team facts - Russia
Russia's Euro 2008 squad has won a total of 503 caps, fewer than any other country that was present at Euro 2008.
The average age of the Russian squad is also the youngest in this tournament. Their average age is 26 years and 99 days on the day of the semi-final.
However, head coach Guus Hiddink is vastly experienced in major tournaments. Euro 2008 is his fifth European Championship or World Cup. So far Hiddink has recorded 11 wins, equalling Dutch record holder Rinus Michels. Only Berti Vogts (12), Mario Zagallo (13), Luiz Felipe Scolari (16) and Helmut Schon (19) have won more matches in European Championships and World Cups combined.
Russia and Turkey became only the fifth and sixth countries to qualify for the European Championship semi-finals despite losing their first match in the group.
Team facts - Spain
Qualified for a European Championship semi-final for the third time. Spain went on to reach the final on the two previous occasions, in 1964 and 1984.
Unbeaten in 20 matches (17 wins and three draws) since losing to Romania (0-1) in November 2006. The Spanish record is 31 and was set between September 1994 and November 1997.
The second longest unbeaten streak was also set during the reign of coach Luis Aragones. Between August 2004 and June 2006, Spain remained unbeaten in 25 matches in a row.
Aragones is the oldest coach to lead a team to the semi-finals in a European Championship. He is 69 years and 334 days old on Thursday. The previous record holder was Otto Rehhagel, who was 65 years and 327 days old when Greece played in the last four of Euro 2004.
Player facts - Russia
By scoring three goals, Roman Pavlyuchenko has become Russia's joint top scorer in European Championships. He equalled Valentin Ivanov (1960-1964) and Viktor Ponedelnik (1960-1964).
Igor Akinfeev, Vyacheslav Malafeev, Aleksandr Anyukov, Vladimir Bystrov, Igor Semshov and Dmitri Sychev sat on the bench when Spain and Russia met at Euro 2004. Sychev made a substitute appearance.
Dmitriy Torbinskiy and Denis Kolodin are suspended for this match.
Player facts - Spain
Santi Cazorla has come on as a substitute for Andres Iniesta in every match at Euro 2008.
For some Spanish and Russian players this will be the fourth time they meet this season, including Euro 2008. When Villarreal CF were knocked out by Zenit St. Petersburg in the third round of the Uefa Cup, Joan Capdevila, Marcos Senna and Santi Cazorla faced Vyacheslav Malafeev, Aleksandr Anyukov, Roman Shirokov, Konstantin Zyryanov and Andrei Arshavin.
Miscellaneous Info
Belgian referee Frank De Bleeckere also controlled Russia's group match against Sweden (2-0) at Euro 2008.
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