Basle, Switzerland - Russia limbered up for their semi-final encounter with Spain with a training session Monday in Basle, and the media was out in force. Everyone, it seemed, had come to see Andrei Arshavin, the bright new face of football, who has taken Euro 2008 by storm.
But any hopes for a few words toward the microphones trained on the players at Rankhof Stadium in Basle were soon dashed.
Arshavin and his team-mates filed past the journalists lined up behind a barrier beside the pitch without a word. Almost, that is.
"Nice picture," Arshavin said in English after one television reporter held up a poster-size photograph of the player celebrating a goal against the Dutch in the hope of luring him to his microphone.
"He doesn't give interviews," a UEFA official with the team pointed out.
The many Spanish journalists among the media throng would no doubt have liked to ask him about a possible move to Barcelona.
Russia coach Guus Hiddink more than made up for his players' reticence with the press by patiently going along the line answering one question after the other.
He must have answered at least 100 questions, many of them several times over, in Dutch, English and Spanish.
For Russian, hand signals and an interpreter help a lot when working out with the players.
In truth, there wasn't a great deal of work in a light training session. Anyone looking for any fitness secrets would have been sorely disappointed.
Arshavin spent most of the second half of the session sitting on the grass with a group of team-mates watching other squad players enjoy a five-a-side session.
There had been some light jogging, and three nets were set up for three simultaneous games of three-a-side football-tennis. It was a rest and recovery programme two days ahead of Russia's semi-final against Spain.
"Our endurance levels were acceptable, but when you play a tournament and high international football you need to go into explosiveness," Hiddink said.
"As a consequence, the recovery time was an area where we have practised a lot because that area was not very well trained."
The Russian squad ambled into the ground without saying much and ambled off two hours later saying even less. They are letting their football - and Hiddink - do all the talking.
