Russia's Sergei Ignashevich (left) celebrates with a fellow team member after their side's 2-0 win against Sweden in Innsbruck, Austria, yesterday. - AP

VIENNA, Austria (AP):

RUSSIA CLAIMED the final quarter-final spot at the European Championship yesterday, beating Sweden 2-0 in Group D to set up coach Guus Hiddink with a match against the Netherlands, his home country and former team.

Roman Pavlyuchenko and Andrei Arshavin scored a goal each in Innsbruck to put the Russians through to the knockout round. Hiddink, a Dutchman who took over Russia after leading Australia to the second round of the World Cup two years, maintained his perfect record of advancing through the group stage at major tournaments.

"This is a tremendous victory," Hiddink said.

Greece avoided becoming the first defending champions to fail to score a goal at the European tournament, but still lost to already-qualified Spain 2-1. Dani Guiza and Ruben de la Red scored a goal each in Salzburg after Angelos Charisteas had given the 2004 champions the lead.

The quarter-finals start today with Portugal facing Germany in Basel, Switzerland. Croatia and Turkey then face each other in Vienna tomorrow, and the Netherlands play Russia on Saturday in Basel. Spain face Italy in the final quarter-final match on Sunday in Vienna.

Pavlyuchenko gave Russia the lead by side-footing in a cross from Aleksandr Anyukov in the 24th minute. Arshavin, who returned to the line-up after missing the first two matches of the tournament through suspension, added another in the 50th after picking up a pass from Yuri Zhirkov in a fast Russian counter-attack and scoring with a right-footed shot in the 50th.

Aggressive open

Russia, who reached the knockout stage for the first time since the break up of the Soviet Union, opened aggressively knowing they needed a win to advance, and the pressure resulted in a string of corner kicks but no clear opportunities until Yuri Zhirkov's hard volley in the 21st went just outside the post.

"I think we were too passive, especially in the first half," Sweden coach Lars Lagerback said. "We tried to lift ourselves up in the second half, but then they scored an early goal and it became and an uphill battle."

Spain's win was their ninth straight, stretching their unbeaten run to 19 games, and both De la Red and Guiza got their first international goals.

De la Red's hard shot in the 61st hit the hand of Greece goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis, but the ball then deflected off the underside of the crossbar and into the net. Guiza, who led the Spanish league with 27 goals this season, headed in the second goal off a cross from Sergio Garcia in the 88th to keep the Spanish perfect in the group with nine points.

"It was important for us to win the game," Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso said. "We complicated the first half but we're leaving satisfied."

The Greeks had taken the lead in the 42nd when Charisteas, who scored the winning goal against Portugal in the Euro 2004 final, headed in a free kick from Giorgos Karagounis.

"We wanted to say goodbye in an orderly way. And we did that," Greece coach Otto Rehhagel said. "I don't blame anyone individually. All the players followed my instructions."

Greece are the only team at the tournament to not earn a single point from three matches.