VIENNA, June 15: Greece’s Euro 2008 title defence petered out tamely on Saturday when they lost 1-0 to Russia but Spain became the fourth team to qualify for the quarter-finals with a last-gasp 2-1 victory over Sweden.

Greece’s 1-0 defeat in Salzburg sent Spain through to join Portugal, Croatia and Netherlands in the last eight, all as group winners on six points.

The Greeks join co-hosts Switzerland as the only teams out of contention at the end of the second round of group games, with the 2004 champions the only one of 16 teams not to score.

It also maintained the European Championship’s record of the defending champions failing to reach the final since it switched to a tournament format in 1980.

“We didn’t score against Sweden [in their earlier group match] and we didn’t score today, which shows where our problems lie,” said Greece coach Otto Rehhagel. “We thought we would do better here.”

In what is becoming a recurring theme at this action-packed and highly entertaining tournament, David Villa netted in stoppage time for Spain in Innsbruck, his fourth goal in two games and the seventh added-time goal in 16 games so far.

Saturday took the tournament, co-hosted by Switzerland and Austria, past the halfway mark with 16 of the 31 matches played.

The first eight days have produced some excellent football and unexpected results in a generally trouble-free, party atmosphere.

Spain again looked lively and led through Fernando Torres before Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored a cracker in Sweden’s opening 2-0 win over Greece, levelled later in the first half.

It stayed that way until the 92nd minute when Villa broke away and fashioned a goal out of nothing, his fourth of the tournament following his hat-trick in the 4-1 win over Russia.

The Russians later got their campaign back on track with a first-half goal by Konstantin Zyryanov after a blunder by Greek keeper Antonis Nikopolidis and though Greece finally threw some bodies forward after the break they rarely threatened.

Russia and Sweden meet in their final game in Innsbruck on Wednesday when the Swedes will need only a draw to go through but Russia will have striker Andrei Arshavin available for the first time in the tournament after a suspension.

The situation is far less clearcut in Group ‘C’ where myriad possible outcomes surround the group’s final round on Tuesday.Despite being held to a 1-1 draw by Romania, world champions Italy remain in the competition and could still reach the quarter-finals with a meagre two points.

France need to beat Italy in the World Cup final repeat to have any chance following their 4-1 thrashing by Netherlands.

Fans of all persuasions were still purring in appreciation of the Dutch performance in that game, with comparisons to the “Total Football” of the 1970s and the 1988 European Championship-winning teams proving irresistible.

Even Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was caught up in the euphoria, saying that he told the players he was keeping his diary free for June 29 – the day of the final.

More than 7.4 million of the country’s population of 16 million watched Friday’s game on TV and another 150,000 were in Berne, where police reported only a few arrests for minor incidents after a long night of celebrations.

Romania are still very much still in the hunt too and could also advance with a draw against Netherlands.

The final round of group fixtures began on Sunday when Turkey and Czech Republic met in Geneva to fight it out for second place in Group ‘A’. A draw would produce the first penalty shootout to decide a group game in a major tournament.

Portugal play Switzerland in Basel at the same time.—Reuters