David Villa's injury time winner gave Spain a narrow 2-1 victory over Sweden to lift them top of Group D at Euro 2008.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored in the 34th minute to level Sweden 1-1 with Spain before halftime but Villa's goal two minutes into stoppage time sent Sweden into disappointment.
"We had a deserved early lead," said Spain's manager Luis Aragones, "but then we lost our pace a bit and they came back to equalize."
"We tried out best in the second half and we made it. Normally six points has secured a last eight place so we might have some changes for the next match."
The Spaniards could have been left in deep regret as they squandered dozens of opportunities after the restart including a triple in the 65th minute.
Sweden's keeper Andreas Isaksson failed to hold David Silva's shot with the ball slipping to Villa, but recovered to parry the follow-up and Fernando Torres' third attempt was deflected wide off Daniel Andersson with Isaksson cuddling up in pain due to a clash with Villa.
Villa, who scored the first hat-trick of the tournament in their opening 4-1 victory over Russia, impressed again as the Valencia striker practically guarantee a quarterfinal berth to Spain.
Joan Capdevila played a searching ball into the Sweden area and with Petter Hansson dithering, Villa took advantage in clinical fashion to slot the ball past Isaksson.
Spain were the first to celebrate after 15 minutes as David Silva's pass from a corner was met by Fernando Torres at the near post, who poke the ball into the net.
But Sweden returned with a quick counter-attack scare a minute later when Henrik Larsson's disguised pass granted Johan Elmander a chance with the latter screwing his effort into the side-netting.
Veteran Larrson missed another chance in the 22nd minute, beating an offside trap only to loft the ball high over the bar.
It was Ibrahimovic who leveled the scoreline for Sweden. The Inter Milan striker received the ball at the edge of the box before turning around and firing low past Iker Casillas.
Aragones had the luxury to select the same starting lineup that had impressed much but substituted Cesc Fabregas for Xavi Hernandez to underline attack in the second half.
Lars Lagerback had Elmander and Fredrik Stoor fill in the positions of injured right-sided duo Niclas Alexandersson and Christian Wilhelmsson.
Source: Xinhua
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