Holders Greece made sure of a place in the quarter-finals with a comfortable 85-67 win over Portugal at the European basketball championship.

Power forward Dimosthenis Ntikoudis was top scorer for the Greeks with 17 points and nine rebounds but they were never really troubled by the tournament upstarts who achieved their best-ever European championship finish.

"I want to congratulate Portugal, they are the surprise of European basketball," Greece coach Panagiotis Yannakis said.

"My team expected a tough game, showed good concentration and good percentage on shots. We are getting better day by day."

Greece needed to win their final game in Group E to progress after an inconsistent start.

Portugal go home regardless of the outcome of the late game, Spain against Israel. On their only previous appearance in 1951 they went out in the first stage.

Earlier, Russia, who had already qualified, bounced back from a defeat by Spain with an 83-70 win over Croatia.

After an evenly contested first two periods Russia pulled away, led by forward Andrei Kirilenko who finished with a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds. Guard Davor Kus stood out for Croatia with 17 points.

"I want to congratulate my players. They could have been unmotivated and taken it easy because it was of little significance as there are no easy games in the quarters," Russia coach David Blatt said.

"But we came to play to win. Once they had awoken from their siesta in the first half we played one of our best second halves. The players had the right attitude."

Croatia played without starting guard Marko Popovic, who was rested due to a hamstring injury.

Reuters / Eurosport