There are known to be two good Dutch teams at Euro 2008, Holland and Holland reserves, and now there is a third. Russia, as marshalled by Guus Hiddink, last night turned in a performance against Sweden that outstripped even Marco van Basten’s men in the totality of their football.

The modern Dutch dismiss those that remain obsessed with the past. These 21st-century men of orange have boundless skill and hit fast on the break, but Van Basten also has his team set up in a rigid style that leaves little to chance. Hiddink’s design of Russia, however, owes considerably more to the spirit of the Holland team of 1974, arguably the best not to win a leading tournament in the modern era. The play is fluid, the positions are flexible and the game plan is a triumph of intelligent thought.

Hiddink, in two years, has done what England are always told is impossible: he has coached players of international standard and got them to step beyond their comfort zone. Maybe he would have done that for the FA, too.

Russia were not playing like this when Hiddink arrived in 2006, and his achievement is that this is now a team of possibilities. A full back can be a forward, a midfield player can drop into the back four, a central player can turn up on the wing and as for the strikers, well, they can be anything really — dropping out, dropping in, always on the move, dragging the Sweden defence into dead ends and distractions.

The first goal, after 24 minutes, illustrated the Russian threat perfectly, a minor masterpiece of football the Dutch way, complete with a central midfield player, Igor Semshov, who took up a position wide on the right flank, and an overlapping full back, Alexander Anyukov, who ran inside him down the middle and made the vital final pass square, from the edge of the penalty area. By then, the Sweden defenders were staggering about looking for the migraine tablets and it only remained for Roman Pavlyuchenko, tormentor of Steve McClaren’s England, to finish smartly, giving Andreas Isaksson, in Sweden’s goal, no chance.

Ah, McClaren, the maligned former England head coach who failed to lead his players out of a so-called easy group that we now know featured two of the European Championship quarter-finalists. No excuses, he still blew it against Croatia at Wembley, but it is worth noting that if qualifying group E had taken place at Royal Ascot, the subsequent form of the horses placed first and second would make whatever ran third worth keeping an eye on, too. England are not in the class of most of teams in the last eight, but no one who has watched Croatia or Russia on their good days would peddle the falsehood that England’s opponents were inferior.

Indeed, Russia were so audacious for most of this match that it was hard to comprehend we were watching the same team that had lost their opening game 4-1 to Spain. This has been a week for comebacks at the European Championship. Turkey won from 2-0 down in the space of 15 minutes against the Czech Republic on Sunday and Italy rose from the dead after a 3-0 defeat by Holland to fight their way out of group C.

Even that revival pales by comparison, however, with the humbling of Russia in this stadium against Spain nine days ago. Italy are world champions and have experience to draw on; Russia, by comparison, were taken apart by David Villa and Fernando Torres, while looking every inch like a team that had qualified with a great escape — England’s home defeat by Croatia — and were unlikely to figure much beyond the second game.

Such logic now requires a serious rethink. Russia will be a threat to any team with defensive frailty, as England discovered in Moscow, and looking at a Holland back four of Barclays Premier League also-rans, their meeting in Basle on Saturday is far from a foregone conclusion, however stellar Holland’s form.

If Russia had won by six, nobody would be talking so blithely of Dutch progress to the last four, yet with better finishing that is what the scoreline would have been. The second goal, on 50 minutes, ended the contest, Yuri Zhirkov breaking and the talismanic Andrei Arshavin marking his return to the team after suspension with a fine finish, but Russia could have had many more. Diniyar Bilyaletdinov shot wide from 20 yards, Pavlyuchenko hit the bar from ten, Zhirkov had an effort tipped round and a deflected shot from Konstantin Zyryanov struck a post.

The return of Arshavin from a two-match suspension incurred in the final qualifying group game with Andorra was important to this upgrade on previous Russia performances, but it would do his team-mates a disservice to present it as the only reason for the elevation of form. More, this was a night when a plan came together, when all of Hiddink’s teaching these past two years was put into practice. He achieved something similar with South Korea in 2002; it is no fluke.

“I am especially very proud of the team and their achievement tonight, from the result against Spain, look at the progress we have made in a few hours and a few days. This team plays modern football,” Hiddink said. “The only criticism you can make is that we do not score enough of the opportunities we get.”

Ultimately, Swedish efficiency was no match for what Hiddink has created by taking the brilliant ideas forged by his countrymen and exporting them around the world. Having taught Russia all they know, Holland may now fear this knowledge is about to be used against them. Either way, the future is orange, although perhaps with a hint of red.

Russia (4-1-3-2): I Akinfeev — A Anyukov, S Ignashevich, D Kolodin, Y Zhirkov — S Semak — K Zyryanov, I Semshov, D Bilyaletdinov (sub: I Saenko, 66min) — R Pavlyuchenko (sub: V Bystrov, 90), A Arshavin. Substitutes not used: V Gabulov, V Malafeev, V Berezutski, R Yanbaev, A Berezutski, R Adamov, D Torbinski, O Ivanov, R Shirokov, D Sychev. Booked: Semak, Arshavin, Kolodin.

Sweden (4-4-2): A Isaksson — F Stoor, O Mellberg, P Hansson, M Nilsson (sub: M Allbäck, 78) — J Elmander, D Andersson (sub: K Källström 56), A Svensson, F Ljungberg — H Larsson, Z Ibrahimovic. Substitutes not used: R Shaaban, J Wiland, T Linderoth, N Alexandersson, D Majstorovic, A Granqvist, S Larsson, C Wilhelmsson, M Rosenberg, M Dorsin. Booked: Isaksson, Elmander.

Referee: F de Bleeckere (Belgium).