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.

Despite dominating possession during the first half though, 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.

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

"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."

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.

"But all in all I believe that the team was able to implement what we had talked about and I think we put up a good show for our last match.

"It is true that the Spaniards had more control of the ball than we did, which is the reason why we eventually we had to concede."

However, Rehhagel felt it might have been a different story if his players had made the most of their chances - something the coach admits has long been a problem for the team.

Soon after De la Red had drawn Spain level, Charisteas had a chance to put Greece back in front but, after getting in behind the Spanish defence and skipping past Pepe Reina, he could only hit the near post, albeit from an acute angle.

"Obviously we were leading 1-0 and a number of players played an outstanding match, everybody wanted to win but unfortunately we were unable to seize our opportunity to go from 1-1 to 2-1 and I've mentioned this time and again, we are not a team that scores goals easily," said the German coach.