On a damp, dark night, high in the Austrian Alps, a team bus pulled up outside a hotel and a group of young footballers wearily disembarked before entering into what would be their home for the coming weeks.

Confused beginnings
With bags strewn about the hotel lobby and players walking in opposite directions, the imposing figure of Guus Hiddink emerged, red-faced and irritated. He did not want to talk to reporters, just to check into his room and settle down for the night. Heads bowed and silent in their pursuit of identifying one of the identical bags as their own, several players continued to look like confused mathematicians trying to decipher a complicated equation. Thus was Team Russia`s arrival at their base in Leogang. With UEFA EURO 2008™ just days away, this bunch seemed some way off a continental-class outfit.

Harsh lesson
The confusion of the hotel lobby scenario was, in a sense, played out in the team`s first game, a 4-1 drubbing by Spain. Russia`s defence, in particular, was in disarray and picked off almost at will by Spain`s lethal front line. It was a harsh lesson for the youngest side at the tournament and stinging words from their coach followed in the dressing room. They had been "childish and naïve" according to Hiddink who, allegedly, lambasted several members of the team at half-time. The 61-year-old challenged his players to "run away, or to stand up and fight."

http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/news/kind=1/newsid=723809.html#hiddink+proud+russian+creation