Holders Greece crashed out of Euro 2008 after losing 0-1 to Guus Hiddink's Russia in Salzburg. The loss, coupled with Greece's opening 0-2 loss to Sweden means that the defending champions have only pride to play for against an in form Spain on Wednesday.

Russia recovered well from the 1-4 drubbing they received at the hands of the Spanish, and could have won the game more comfortably, had they converted even half the chances that came their way. Veteran Antonis Nikopolidis did well to tip Roman Pavyluchenko's 12th minute effort over the bar, but what he did 20 minutes later could only be described as self destruction at its best. Dmitry Torbinsky crossed from the left, and Nikopolidis ran to his left to catch the ball. But Russian skipper Sergey Semak was there before him, and his overhead kick fell perfectly for Konstantin Zyryanov to volley home into an empty net.

Greece were disappointing- Angelos Charisteas missed two simple chances on either side of the lemon break. One was from an Angelos Basinas freekick, which he failed to get a touch to, and eventually hit Igor Semshov and went out for a corner. The other was in the second half, but his weak effort did not even trouble Akinfeev. When he eventually did tap in a rebound after Gekas had shot at the Russian goal, it was disallowed for offside. Giorgios Karagounis tried his best too, but could not find the back of the net. Greece's desperation was perfectly illustrated by Giannakopoulos, who even held the fourth referee's board in his desire to get on to the pitch when he replaced Amanatidis.

Russia were pacy, and Roman Pavyluchenko had many opportunities to get on the scoresheet. He had a brilliant game, only marred by his inability to convert. He had a couple of efforts go above the bar, but he will get better with time. Andrei Arshavin returns for Russia's next game against Sweden, which will see the winners advance to the next round with Spain.