BASLE: Pele, Maradona, Zico, Platini, Baggio, Zidane. Could Andrei Arshavin be next in line as one of football's great No.10s?

The number on the shirt that has traditionally stood for a sublime mix of balance and power, vision and goals had been strangely absent from the key moments at Euro 2008.

Important matches at the biggest tournaments demand a defining performance, and historically it is the man wearing No.10 who delivers.

We might have seen one on Saturday night. Arshavin was excellent in the regulation 90 minutes at St Jakob Park, giving everything to inspire Russia to an upset win 3-1 over Holland in extra time, which was only required because Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy equalised in the 86th minute.

Yet the little man whose cheeks were flushed bright red from his exertions almost from the start was even better in the 30 added minutes. His virtuoso performance lifted his side to victory, scoring in the 116th minute to ensure the cameras - and eyes of the football world - were on him. Russia coach Guus Hiddink called Arshavin a natural winner.

"He has tremendous skills. He knows how to dribble in defence," Hiddink said. "[Defenders] can run with him but they cannot really attack him. It is what nature gave him."

The potential for a historic night was there from the beginning on a steamy hot night in Basle.

Arshavin and Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands both fit the bill of a classic No.10. Poised and irrepressible, deadly with both feet. And the smallest men in their starting line-ups.

That puts them in the mould of Diego Maradona, possessing a low centre of gravity to bedevil any brutish defenders towering over them.

And like the great Argentinian, Arshavin - at 173 centimetres - is a general on the pitch.

Despite not wearing the captain's armband, the 27-year-old playmaker dictates the tempo of the Russian game and prompts and urges those around him. They seem happy to listen.

In the 112th minute, Arshavin collected the ball out on the left with no support and no obvious prospects. He darted, waited, went to the byline and a lazy cross stayed in the air long enough for Dmitri Torbinski to arrive and tuck it away.

Four minutes later, Arshavin found more energy to go beyond the defence and finish off the Oranje challenge at Euro 2008 with his 13th goal in 36 international matches. If Arshavin seems to have flown under the radar, that is because he sat out the first two group matches after being sent off in the final qualifying match last November.

Since he arrived on the pitch, Russia have won both their games, and from what we have seen, that would appear to be more than a coincidence.

AP