Hiddink has been charged with the difficult task of bringing the unbeaten Oranje's sensational run at the tournament to an end in tomorrow's quarter-final, which could make him public enemy number one in his homeland.

But the experienced 61-year-old admits he is too long in the tooth to be worried about things like that, and is simply focused on helping put Russia - a sleeping giant of European football - back on the map.

"I want to be THE traitor of Holland," he quipped.

"I very much enjoy working in the top sector of world football. So if you win, you get hero status; if you lose, you are quickly doomed.

"It is difficult to do anything about it. What can I say? I don't mean to be annoying, but it doesn't make me excited or not.

"I love what I do, I try to give my maximum, and if that leads to me being doomed, I just have to get on with it.

"I'll let other people decide that for me."

The Russians have qualified for the tournament's knockout stages for the first time since 1988, when, as the Soviet Union, they lost in the final to Holland.

In that time, their national team has lost its way, a shadow of the former team that won the inaugural European Championship in 1960 and finished runners-up in both 1964 and 1972.

But under Hiddink, their progress has been stunning and with the money currently engulfing football in Russia dovetailing the rise to prominence of a number of their star players, the future suddenly looks bright.

A victory over Holland at Basle's St Jakob-Park and a semi-final clash against either Italy or Spain would not harm its profile either.

"This is the real stuff now," Hiddink added. "The team is proud and I'm proud.

"The nation has been given a lift. We have got to the quarter-finals and we could say, 'That is it, everyone is happy, everyone is satisfied'.

"But it is in the spirit of the game to make the next step, which we want to do in the upcoming game against a country who has proved a lot both in the past and recently, and whose performances have made a worldwide impression."

Indeed, while Russia needed to win their last two group games to reach the last eight, Holland qualified in superb style by bagging a total of nine goals in the 'Group of Death' against Italy, France and Romania.

The Dutch are arguably the tournament favourites now, especially with Portugal having been eliminated, and Hiddink admits he has a near-impossible task to stall the Oranje juggernaut.

"The Dutch think they are difficult to outsmart tactically because they are brought up thinking tactically," he said.

"When they are 14, 15, 16, they are introduced into this education by clubs. It is difficult to outsmart them, in fact I don't know how to do it.

"This is a class team - we are playing one of the best technical and tactical teams in the world. You can understand if Holland think this will be a walkover.

"But every team has a weak point. You just have to either cover it if it is yours, or find it if it is theirs."

Hiddink is expected to go with the team that started the 2-0 win against Sweden on Thursday.