Russian media cheer Euro 2008 quarter-final berth

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

MOSCOW (AFP) — Russian newspapers voiced their delight Thursday with their national team winning a Euro 2008 quarter-final berth for the first time in over 20 years.

"Thank you, (coach Guus) Hiddink! Even his compatriots did not expect in vain that he would bring Russia into quarter-finals," the official Rossiyskaya Gazeta exulted in a frontpage report headlined "We broke through the Swedish wall."

Russia beat Sweden 2-0 at Innsbruck, Austria on Wednesday to earn a spot in the knockout stage of a major tournament for the first since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

They will play Holland in the quarter-final in Basel, Switzerland, on Saturday -- a repeat to a certain extent of the 1988 final when present Dutch coach Marco van Basten scored in the...