Hosts and world champions Spain beat holders Greece 82-77 to reach the European championship final.

They will meet 2003 winners Lithuania or Russia, who play the second semi-final later, in the gold medal match on Sunday.

Pau Gasol and Memphis Grizzlies team mate Juan Carlos Navarro led the scoring for Spain with 23 points each, while Jose Manuel Calderon notched up 18.

Greece, who had trailed by 11 in the second quarter, fought back to take the game to the wire.

But it was Spain who pulled away in a tense final five minutes, roared on by a capacity crowd, in an increasingly niggly atmosphere.

"It was very tough," Calderon said. "They wanted to prove they were still the champions and it was a clash of two styles. I think we managed to impose ours. Everyone played to the limit, it was like a war."

Vassilis Spanoulis top-scored for the defending champions with a game-high 24 points, but only one other team mate made double figures, Panagiotis Vasilopoulos with 10.

It was particularly painful for Greece, who lost to Spain 70-47 in the world championship final in Japan last year.

"It was another very good game. You saw the world champions playing at home against the second best team in the world," Greek coach Panagiotis Yannakis said.

Forward Konstantinos Tsartsaris added: "Spain had an advantage as we were very tired from last night (after Thursday's quarter-final). But we proved we can still play to a high standard against the best."

Greece await the loser of the other semi in the bronze medal match on Sunday when they could still secure one of two automatic qualification slots available for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Spain have already made it as world champions.

Reuters