JUST when almost everyone was expecting Holland to win, they faltered.

Same old story.

If Holland coach Marco van Basten and his charges were expecting Russia to roll over and play dead in the quarter-finals, they couldn't have been more wrong.

Guus Hiddink's men were more than up to the task.

At St Jakob-Park this morning (Singapore time), they crushed the Orange Army's egos with a 3-1 win in extra time to qualify for the semi-finals.

Might as well.

Now, the Dutch side will have plenty of time to reflect on what exactly hit them.

Did they use the wrong tactics?

Or were Russia simply the better team overall?

Maybe it was neither of the above.

For there is a sneaky feeling that the Dutch had underestimated their opponents.

At the pre-match conference on the eve of the game, a confident van Basten said: 'This is only the beginning.

'We have to play hopefully a few more games, starting tomorrow against Russia which will be a really interesting game.'

Talk about counting your chickens before they are hatched.

Maybe he had been lifted by the way Russia crumbled against the Spaniards in their opening group match, which saw Hiddink's charges walloped 4-1.

After all, van Basten also talked of playing like 'how the Spanish team did'.

So, the conditions were perfect for the virus of overconfidence to spread throughout the team.

The confidence surge was probably beyond what they could handle and proved to be their downfall.

Hopes had soared after the Oranje's stupendous form during the group phase.

World champions Italy were outclassed, France were brushed aside just as easily, and the Dutch second team easily disposed of tough nut Romania.

So fluent was their football that even bookmakers were convinced that those were the champions they were watching, slashing their odds to install Holland as the tournament favourites.

But the pessimists sensed that it might be too good to be true.

FC Groningen coach Ron Jans, while maintaining that Holland are good enough to win the title, warned that they may not know how to react if things didn't go their way.

He was spot-on.

After conceding the first goal, which the ever-dangerous Roman Pavlyuchenko volleyed home, Holland briefly threatened to strike back.

But it was shortlived.

Holland didn't have much of a peek at the Russian goal.

The result wasn't even an injustice.

Russia won, and rightfully, too.

For the entire 120 minutes, extra time included, Russia controlled the game, and had the better goal-scoring chances.

ACROBATICS

If not for the acrobatics of Edwin van der Sar, who pulled off wonderful saves from Andrei Arshavin and Denis Kolodin in the first half, the match should have been settled within 90 minutes.

Holland thought they had rescued the game when Ruud van Nistelrooy equalised four minutes from time.

But it only served to prolong their misery.

One wonders what was on van Basten's mind.

Up against his compatriot Hiddink, he didn't seem to have an answer to Russia's superiority.

By the end of 62 minutes, they had already used up all their substitutes.

And nothing changed.

Russia were still forcing the pace. And they still looked more likely to win.

Although Holland dominated in terms of ball possession, they could never break free of the stranglehold the opponents had on them in the Russian half.

And after Pavlyuchenko scored the first goal, the players' body language seemed to suggest that they were already fearing the worst.

Struck with an unexpected blow from the underdogs, they didn't know what to do.

Wesley Sneijder was constantly flapping his arms in frustration, apparently upset that he wasn't given the ball often enough.

Orlando Engelaar, so impressive prior to this match, was so ineffective that he was taken off close to the hour mark.

Van Nistelrooy's equaliser couldn't prevent the inevitable.

This morning, Holland lost to a Russian team which didn't take things for granted.

Holland were not ready for a street fight.

Because they did not come mentally prepared.