Second-half showing delights Aragones

Aragones had named virtually an entire new starting XI for the match with Spain already guaranteed to finish as Group D winners following their victories over Russia and Sweden.

"In the second half the effort from my players showed that they are in great shape physically," said Aragones.

"We didn't have the tempo we needed in the first half, we were playing at Greece's rhythm. But in the second half we played as well as we have played, we had five or six chances and could have scored more goals."

Despite dominating possession during the first half Spain found themselves trailing at the break following Angelos Charisteas's headed goal just before half-time for the outgoing European champions.

Aragones refused to turn to his rested big guns at half-time though, and the fringe players justified their coach's faith by turning the game round in the second half thanks to goals from Ruben De la Red and Dani Guiza, whose winning strike came in the 88th minute.

Those goals helped Spain extend their unbeaten run to 19 matches - the last nine of which have been victories - and gave them the perfect boost ahead of their quarter-final showdown against Italy.

For Greece, the result made it three defeats out of three in what has been a disappointing end to the defence of the title they won as rank outsiders in Portugal four years ago.

Despite the loss though, Greece coach Otto Rehhagel felt his side salvaged some pride with their performance against the Spanish.

"I think the team tried hard, but unfortunately when the Spaniards put up the pressure we allowed ourselves to fall back to too much," he said. "Particularly when we conceded the second goal, we would have needed to attack much more strongly to avoid that happening."