For many outside Russia, it seems striker Andrei Arshavin has just burst on to the scene. Stunning performances against Sweden then the Netherlands have propelled the 27-year-old into the limelight, but it is no more than fans of Russia and FC Zenit St. Petersburg expected. After missing Russia's opening two games through suspension, Arshavin quickly made up for lost time with a pair of goals and he is confident there is more to come in Thursday's semi-final against Spain.
For me the first game has no meaning any more. This is a semi-final and things can be decided by a single mistake. We committed tactical and individual mistakes. If you give a shadow of a chance to a striker like David Villa or Fernando Torres, they will put you in trouble. These guys can easily beat a defender one-on-one then score. That's exactly what they did. Russia will play their normal way. We don't play defensive football, we like to attack. But it doesn't all depend on us. Let's see how the Spaniards do. Maybe it makes it harder for us that we play such an open kind of football, because our opponent knows how to counterattack and they have some fast players. But we need to play our way instead of adapting to the opposition.
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