Full circle for Hiddink’s Russia?

The veteran coach blasted his players for giving the ball away too easily after losing to Spain 4-1 in their group opener, and they seem to have learned the lesson. Two weeks later, the Russians have kicked Greece, Sweden and the Netherlands out of the tournament while conceding only one goal.

“It was for us, a first step in a big tournament,” Hiddink said. “Amazingly after that game we made a lot of progress, so I’m proud… to represent a team and the revival of Russian football.”

Spain’s players said they expected a tougher match than in the first clash in Innsbruck. “Russia are not in the semi-finals by chance,” fullback Joan Capdevila said. “They played a perfect match against the Netherlands.”

A key part of the difference is that playmaker Andrei Arshavin is back in Hiddink’s team after serving a two-match suspension in the group stage.

“The first match doesn’t show the level of the team,” midfielder Andres Iniesta said. “Russia has shown they’re a very good team in the next three games. They have seen the return of an important player and that has made them stronger.”

Capdevila had a slight injury in Tuesday’s training and left the session early but was not seriously hurt. The rest of the squad is injury-free.

Hiddink appears to have no injury worries. Midfielder Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, forward Ivan Sayenko and Alexander Anyukov all picked up minor injuries in the quarter-final, but they all trained Wednesday evening and looked fit.

However, Hiddink will have to pick a team without central defender Denis Kolodin and attacking midfielder Dmitry Torbinski, who are both suspended after picking up their second yellow cards of the tournament against the Netherlands.

Vasily Berezutsky is expected to replace Kolodin to play in central defence alongside CSKA Moscow teammate Sergei Ignashevich.

Spain, who are unbeaten in 20 matches and have won the last 10, are likely to stick with the line-up that beat Russia in the group stage and also knocked out Italy in a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals.

Coach Luis Aragones drilled the presumed starting players, led by strikers Fernando Torres and David Villa, in a practice match against the substitutes at Spain’s base camp in Neustift on Tuesday. Villa scored a hat trick against Russia and is the tournament’s top scorer with four goals.

Aragones said getting past the quarter-finals — Spain’s traditional stumbling block — had boosted the team’s confidence.

“We had a little handicap because people always talked about the same thing,” the 69-year-old coach said of breaking Spain’s quarter-final curse. “But the team needs to forget about those things and think positively.

“Now we’re facing rivals who are the physically strongest of the teams in the semi-finals. It will be complicated.”

Hiddink, who has coached three Spanish clubs, said he admires Spain’s footballing philosophy, which is close to Russia’s.

“I am looking forward to the clash between two teams who both like to play with technical skills and both like to play football,” he said. “And that’s why you cannot predict this result.”

While Hiddink will want to forget the group-stage loss, he has positive memories from his previous encounter with Spain. The Dutchman coached the South Korean team that beat Spain in a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup.