Salzburg, Austria - Russia on Wednesday became the last team to reach the quarter-finals after beating Sweden 2-0 in a Group D match played in Innsbruck, while Spain finished with three victories from three games after beating Greece 2-1. In Innsbruck Roman Pavlyuchenko and Andrei Arshavin scored the goals that put the Russians through, while Ruben de la Red and Daniel Guiza scored to give Spain a come-back victory against the defending champions, who had gone ahead through Angelos Charisteas.
The Russian victory sets up an intriguing quarter-final for their Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, who will face the Netherlands in the round of the last eight, while Spain face Italy.
The Swedes went into their match in Innsbruck needing only a draw to advance to the last eight but they were thoroughly outplayed by a slick Russian team growing in confidence after their opening match defeat by Spain.
Pavlyuchenko finished off a superb move to put Russia ahead on 24 minutes and Andrei Arshavin scored the second five minutes into the second half to complete victory for Guus Hiddink's side.
Veteran striker Henrik Larsson denied that the Swedes, the oldest team on average at the tournament, had run out of steam, but admitted they had been second best on the night.
"No, not old legs, old team, I don't know what you are talking about," he said.
"I think we started very well, in the first ten minutes, passed the ball and moved the ball well.
"But after that I don't know what happened, we dropped back, they got space and they got 1-0 which is always difficult to come back from. Then we were going forward and leave room at the back, which is natural."
It's the first time that Russia have reached the last eight of an international event since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
In Salzburg, Spain fielded virtually a reserve side, but the players showed their spirit and quality by coming from behind to beat troubled Greece.
2004 hero Charisteas gave Greece the lead, only for de la Red and Guiza to turn the tables with second-half goals, their first for Spain.
Their third defeat means that Greece bow out as the poorest-ever defending champions in the history of the European Championship.
It was a dismal way for veteran Greek keeper Antonis Nikopolidis to finish his international career, especially because he was partly to blame on Spain's equalizer.
Spain finish top of Group D with nine points. Russia finish second with six points, Sweden third with three.
Spain manager Luis Aragones rested all of his first-teamers, with his mind on Sunday's quarter-final clash against Italy.
His best player was Xabi Alonso, who four times came close to scoring with breath-taking long drives.
"We worked hard for our win tonight," said Alonso at the end.
The Liverpool midfielder added that "Italy will be very complicated rivals, because many times they start poorly but get better as a tournament progresses."
