Netherlands 1 - 3 Russia (aet)
Saturday night saw new tournament favourites the Netherlands take on Dutchman Guus Hiddink's improving Russia team. While the Dutch had sensationally dispensed with Italy and France and rested their key players for a comfortable win over Romania, Russia had been annihilated 4-1 by Spain before easing past Greece 1-0 and putting on an exciting display of fast-moving attacking football in a 2-0 win over Sweden.

Surely their dodgy defence, so embarrassingly shown up by the Spanish, wouldn't be able to cope with the threat of van Nistelrooy, van Persie and Sneijder? In fact, they coped easily. Russia deservedly took a first-half lead through Pavyluchenko, and passed up several good opportunities to seal the points. They were outplaying the Dutch in midfield, with only Wesley Sneijder being able to cause problems for that dodgy Russian defence.

Just before full-time, a brilliant Sneijder free-kick was headed home by Ruud van Nistelrooy, taking the game to extra-time. But the added period saw a revived Russian side, who zipped around the park as if boosted by rocket fuel, inspired by a masterclass display by Andrei Arshavin. His ridiculous by-line cross allowed Dmitri Torbinski to slide home a second goal, before Arshavin himself nutmegged Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar for a third goal with four minutes left.

The Russians deserved their win, and suddenly the biggest clubs in Europe were all searching their pockets for £20m or so to buy 27-year old Arshavin, the new star of the tournament.

Spain 0 - 0 Italy (Spain wins 4-2 on penalties)
By Sunday night, it was left up to Spain to show that group winners could progress in the knock-outs. Croatia and Holland, the other 9-point winners in the group stages, had been evicted by group runners-up, while Group A winners Portugal had been dumped by Germany.

The big match build-up divided neutral fans between romantic and cynical lines: Spain had been enjoying by far the better tournament, the romantics said, and Italy were without their two first-pick central midfielders, Pirlo and Gattuso, due to suspension; it doesn't matter, said the skeptics, this is the way it always goes: Spain will play the best football, miss a load of chances, and be knocked out by a lucky Italian side.

This is "the way", they said, it is fate, and for a long time it looked like this pattern was indeed being followed: Spain attacked and missed; the Italians defended in bulk, and neutral fans around the world collectively groaned as Spain looked set to bottle it again. They didn't.

As the game headed into extra-time, the psychological game that so often determines the victor of high-tension matches like these strongly suggested the Italians would win: everything was going according to their plan, and so typically frustrating the Spanish. Remarkably, the better footballing side was able to triumph over the resilient and experienced Italians. Iker Casillas saved penalties from Daniele De Rossi and Antonio Di Natale, and Gigi Buffon saved one of his own, from Dani Guiza, but it wasn't enough. Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas converted the final spot-kick to give Spain a 4-2 victory, and the final place in the Euro semi-finals.