Great Guus Hiddink: Could Russia Be Euro 2008 Champions?

It's time to get out the vodka. The special stuff—that bottle you've been saving for a special occasion.

Thanks to the genius of the maestro, Guus Hiddink, and a talented supporting cast of Russia's finest players, Russia have made it through to the semi finals of the European Championship.

This means that Russia will be playing either Spain or Italy, depending on the outcome of tonight's match. The  prospect of facing either of these teams is a sobering thought, so perhaps we'd better have another shot of vodka.

Italy, of course, are the current World Champions, but it could be argued they are very lucky to hold that title. Their quarter final berth in the World Cup was courtesy of a highly controversial last-minute penalty awarded against Australia.

Their subsequent matches against Ukraine and Germany were both good efforts, but the final against France was simply awful. The tied game was eventually decided by a penalty shoot-out. 

Even the decider was a bit of a sticky situation, since France had to make do without their star player, Zinedine Zidane who was red-carded in the dying moments of the match.

Their form in Euro 2008 has not been strong, but it has been enough to get them into the match with Spain.

Spain was the best performer during the group stage at the World Cup. They won all of their matches, emerging with nine points and a positive GD of seven.

Those efforts were undone with a shock upset to France, who beat them 3-1.

Like Holland, Spain has once again emerged through the Group Stage unscathed. This guarantees nothing, as Turkey showed Holland last night.

What this all spells out is that neither Italy nor Spain is invincible. Both have their weaknesses, and neither team has the genius of Guus Hiddink guiding them.

Should the Russians defy the odds and beat one of these two football giants, they will then face off against either Turkey (please, God!) or Germany.

Nothing needs to be said about what a delicious situation it would be for a Final between Turkey and Russia. It's the sort of thing we dream of—a true "once in a lifetime" experience.

A match against Germany will also be interesting, however. Most will dismiss Russia as being a vastly inferior team. This would be an unfair judgment, because not only have Germany been playing below their best, but there is some recent history that indicates the outcome is far from a certainty.

The last time Marcell Jansen, Bastien Schweinsteiger, Philip Lahm, Lukas Podolski, and Miroslav Klose faced off against Andrei Asrhavin, Roman Pavluchenko, Roman Shirokov, Konstantin Zurianov and Aleksandr Aniukov, they were defeated. 

Not just your ordinary run-of-the-mill defeat either. It was a whopping 4-0 in normal time.

Of course, in that situation they were representing Bayern Munich (the best team in Germany, hands down) and Zenit St Petersburg, but that really doesn't matter too much. 

The bare fact is that Bayern Munich have not managed to win against Zenit St Petersburg this year.

Russia have a fight on their hands, of course. But they are a far more serious threat than many people will imagine.