Russia got the best performance when it needed badly. More interestingly, Russia, which has never won any match in its last five encounters with Sweden, defeated Scandinavians with ease. While Russia needed a definite win in the match, a draw could have made Swedes to reach onto quarterfinals. For Russia, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Andrei Arshavin each scored a goal. With this victory, Russia has made up to knockout round for first time after the demolition of Soviet empire in 1990.

 

Earlier in the match, Arshavin who was suspended for two games in the cup, gave morale boosting to Russian team as he made many moves for goal. A clever pass enabled Konstantin Zyryanov to escape down the right which he transferred to the dangerous midfielder Pavlyuchenko who shot the ball into net without failing. In the 50^th minute of the game Arshavin doubled the lead with another superb goal. The move made in Russian’s half was taken to Swedes half by Zhirkov and Arshavin converted that into a splendid goal. Now Russia will meet Holland in the quarterfinals of the tournament.