Belarus hope to halt Spain juggernaut

The glimmer of hope for Belarus as they prepare to face team of the moment Spain is that this tournament might finally see the best of Georgi Kondratyev's side in Wednesday's Viborg semi-final.

That was the aspiration voiced by coach Kondratyev as he sized up the challenge of stopping the current heirs to the world and European champions. "It's a great honour for us to play in a European Championship semi-final against such strong opponents, especially as teams from Belarus have never got this far. I hope we'll give our best performance in Denmark."

Whatever the disparity in credentials between the sides, an even contest may yet materialise between the Group A runners-up and Luis Milla's Group B winners. Kondratyev has a full squad save for the suspended Sergei Matveychik and just needs them to avoid the defensive errors which undermined them against Switzerland last Saturday.

Although that seemingly must-win game ended in Belarus's second defeat in three matches, the eastern European outfit scraped through. Now, according to Kondratyev, "the mood is good and we're ready to play against the strongest team in the tournament."

In this juxtaposition of two-time European Under-21 champions and first-time semi-finalists, Belarus will probably also have recourse to the knockout football gods, as the coach, 51, explained: "Knockout games are unpredictable. The main thing is to avoid mistakes as we've made too many unforced errors. It's possible to play against anyone and get a result."

For his part, Milla hardly has to delve deep into his experience as a player with FC Barcelona, Real Madrid CF and Valencia CF to know not to underestimate Belarus. The side that edged a three-way tie for second place with Iceland and Denmark also eliminated Italy in their qualifying play-off. Not only that: to scalp the fancied Italians they overturned a 2-0 deficit with a 3-0 second-leg victory.

Even without the long-term injured Vladimir Yurchenko, two-goal hero of that night in Borisov, Belarus are – Milla counsels – "strong opponents, well organised and leave you little room to play". He added: "This is the team that beat Italy in the play-offs and went on to make the semi-finals. We respect them a lot."

Nonetheless the 45-year-old is eager for Spain to reap the rewards of a campaign spanning two seasons by achieving their twin targets of a place in the final and qualification for the London Olympics. "We have to take just one more step to complete two years' hard work," the trainer said. "This game can get us into the Olympics and we are not thinking beyond that. That was our first goal and still is. We will keep faith with the team that has played, their approach has been very positive."

Milla has made only one change to his starting lineup since the tournament began, with Iker Muniain replacing Jeffren in left midfield after the draw with England that prefaced wins against Czech Republic and Ukraine. After that last match he heralded his side's upwards trajectory here in Jutland; that they have lost just one competitive game since June 2009 – to the Netherlands that November – also inspires confidence.

However, he warned: "We don't want to fall into the trap of premature euphoria. We want to continue as we have been. We have played with intensity – intensity with the ball, always with the intention of scoring goals, and then working very well without the ball too."