Hiddink wanted to play Italy, not Spain

RUSSIA coach Guus Hiddink says he would have preferred for his young, attacking team to play world champions Italy in the semi-finals instead of Spain.

"I'd really like the Italians because tactically you can work against them. It is a team where lots of people stay in one place behind the ball, but that leaves space elsewhere where you can play," he said.

"It didn't happen, that's a shame.

"Spain is a similar team to Russia, they want to play football. But if they go 1-0 up, as we've seen, they drop back and play on the counter-attack."

Russia experienced how well Spain can counter-attack in their Euro 2008 opener, when David Villa scored three times en route to a 4-1 victory.

Hiddink criticised his players, but since the thrashing in Innsbruck, they have conceded one goal in three matches.

Hiddink has slight injury worries, in Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Ivan Sayenko and Alexander Anyukov.