Neustift, June 25:

Russia coach Guus Hiddink wants his young team to avoid schoolboy errors when they get a second chance to beat undefeated Spain in semi-finals. Hiddink 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.

“They have beaten very difficult opponents,” Spain midfielder Xavi Hernandez said. “This match will be different, but were not changing our philosophy to dominate the ball for 90 minutes and play offensively.” Spain know they’re up against a different Russia this time, not least because playmaker Andrei Arshavin is back after serving a two-match suspension.

“There’s a lot of talk about Arshavin, but I think Russia is a bloc,” Xavi said. “They have players that are not that well-known in Europe that are doing well, like Yuri Zhirkov on the left midfield and (striker Roman) Pavlyuchenko.”

Spain fullback Joan Capdevila got a knock in Tuesday’s training but was not seriously hurt. The rest of the squad

is injury-free.

Hiddink has slight worries, with midfielder Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, forward Ivan Sayenko and Alexander Anyukov all carrying minor injuries. While they may be fit for semi-final match, Hiddink

will have to pick a team without central defender Denis Kolodin and attacking midfielder Dmitry Torbinski, who are both suspended.

Spain, who are unbeaten in 20 matches and have won the last 10, are likely to stick with the lineup that beat Russia in the group stage and knocked out Italy in 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 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 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 a rival that is the physically strongest of the teams in the semi-finals. It will be complicated.”

While Hiddink will want to forget the group-stage loss to Spain, 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.