A 3-2 victory over the 14-time winners at the Sporting and Cultural Centre d'Coque ensured a place in the penultimate round and a guaranteed bronze medal.

Experienced Bojan Tokic gave Slovenia the dream start with an 11-4, 11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 11-4 win over Anton Kallberg.

Sweden responded and went 2-1 ahead after Mattias Karlsson beat Darko Jorgic 11-6, 11-7, 11-4 and Kristian Karlsson defeated Deni Kozul 11-4, 12-10, 11-9.

Tokic then overcame Karlsson 11-8, 11-5, 11-6 to take the match to a decider, where Jorgic sealed Slovenia’s success with an 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 11-6 victory over Par Gerell.

“By now, we were always far from the top division at the European Championships; we were playing in the lower one,” Tokic, a European bronze medallist in singles in 2011, said.

“This is a huge success for us.

“The way we achieved it makes us even more proud.

“It did not come easy and we were far from the lucky draw.

“In our group we had two former champions in Austria and Portugal.

“It has been tremendous journey so far.”

Awaiting Slovenia in the semi-finals tomorrow are six-time winners Germany, who beat Ukraine 3-0.

Timo Boll defeated Kou Lei 11-7, 11-8, 11-5 in the opening match before Dimitrij Ovtcharov overcame Viktor Yefimov 11-5, 11-9, 11-6 and Ruwen Filus beat Yevhen Pryshchepa 11-7, 11-9, 11-7.

France and Portugal will contest the second semi-final after they both emerged victorious from their last eight encounters this evening.

The French team defeated Greece 3-0 with ease while Portugal overcame Croatia 3-1.

Defending champions Germany are through to the last four of the women's event after they brushed aside Poland 3-0.

Han Ying, the world number nine, gave the Germans an early advantage with a strong display against Li Qian, which saw her win 11-7, 13-15, 11-6, 11-8.

Another victory came soon after for Germany with Shan Xiaona prevailing over Katarzyna Grzybowska-Franc in the second fixture of the match 11-4, 11-4, 11-6 to leave the title holders just one win away from the last four.

Despite conceding the opening game of the third encounter, Nina Mittelham recovered to defeat Poland’s Natalia Partyka 9-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-6.

“We know that Poland is a strong team, which is hard to beat," said Ying.

"I was very satisfied with my performance and the whole team’s match today."

Germany play The Netherlands in the semi-finals tomorrow after they came through a nervy tie with Austria 3-2.

The second semi-final will be contested between Russia and Romania.

The Russians overcame Hungary 3-1 while their Romanian opponents eased past Portugal 3-0.