David Villa's injury time winner gave Spain a narrow 2-1 victory over Sweden and a quarterfinals berth at Euro 2008 in Innsbruck on Saturday.
Spain secured their place in the last eight after Russia outclassed Greece 1-0 thanks to Konstantin Zyryanov's first-half goal in the other second-round Group D action later, which saw the title holders end their Switzerland and Autria trip already.
The shock winner in 2004 were knocked out of this year's European campaign with no goals and two defeats out of two games as they also lost to Sweden 2-0 in their opener on Tuesday.
Sweden will battle against Russia for the other group D quota on Wednesday while Spain are to take on Greece for nothing.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored in the 34th minute to level Sweden with Spain 1-1 before halftime but Villa's goal two minutes into stoppage time threw 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 our best in the second half for a chance and we made it. Normally six points has secured a last eight place so we might have some changes for the next match."
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 by taking advantage of a dithering Petter Hansson to slot in Joan Capdevila's long searching pass.
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 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 levelled 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.
At Salzburg, Russian captain Sergei Semak bounced the ball back to Greece's area from the bottom line before Zyryanov tapped the ball into the keeperless net with ease in the 33rd minute.
The sole goal of the game is enough to keep Russia's hopes alive although Sweden are current group runners-up ahead of Russia due to goal difference.
Source: Xinhua
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