Spain and Russia will meet in the second semi-final of the European football championship on June 26 in Vienna in a repeat of the group match that Spain won confidently 4:1.

In that game, Spain made good use of the pace of their two forwards - Valencia's David Villa and Liverpool's Fernando Torres - to repeatedly catch Russian defenders out of position. But it will face a very different team this time around, one that has been revitalised by the return from suspension of Andrei Arshavin.

Although the playmaker has only featured in two matches at Euro 2008, his performances against Sweden and the Netherlands have made him one of the players of the tournament and drew the attention of a host of big-name clubs, such as Barcelona, who are now interested in acquiring his services.

Arshavin's incisive runs are likely to cause plenty of trouble for Spain's unconvincing defence, but Russia is unlikely to adopt the same swashbuckling approach that they did in the group stage match against the same opponent.

"You could see we tried to play good football, but there was a big trap. By playing football we gave a lot of presents to our opponent," Russia's head coach Guus Hiddink said in his pre-match conference.

Hiddink will likely opt for a more patient approach, which worked so well against the Netherlands in the quarterfinal, though it remains to be seen whether his players will be able to maintain the same level of physical pressure as in their previous match.

The winner will face Germany in the final after the "mannschaft" beat Turkey in the first semi-final on June 25. Despite relinquishing the initiative for much of the match, Germany won 3:2, with Turkey once again providing an exciting and dramatic finale, but this time their efforts were not enough to secure progression.

Ugur Boral opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, coaxing the ball through the legs of German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, but Turkey's lead lasted only three minutes, Bastian Schweinsteiger equalising with a flick over Rustu Recber. A curious fact reported by broadcasters worldwide is that Turkey has held leads for only 13 minutes during the Euro 2008, despite reaching the semi-finals.

Turkey continued to pile on the pressure against Germany, who had difficulties keeping the ball for much of the match and rarely threatened Recber's goal, but on one of those ocasions, full-back Philipp Lahm was fouled just outside the penalty area, but the referee waived play on, rejecting the penalty appeals from German players and the bench.

Germany took the lead through Miroslav Klose in the 78th minute, only for Turkey to make another dramatic comeback through Semih Senturk with five minutes to go. But the team that has specialised in late goals at this tournament could not hold on to the the result and Lahm set the final score in the 88th minute.