The 100-1 outsiders a month ago, they had already crushed the hopes of Spain, France and the Czech Republic and last night came their crowning glory. Portugal had been anticipating the coronation of their “golden generation”, but the party had to be cancelled. Instead, the Stadium of Light was forced to salute a former Sheffield United defender and a one-time Leicester City midfield player who were two of the cogs of Rehhagel’s durable, defensive machine.
“Football has united Greeks all over the world, something politics has never managed to do,” Rehhagel said after becoming, as Greece’s German head coach, the first foreign manager to win the European Championship. “They exaggerate joy and sadness, so we will be treated like gods now.”
In some eyes, any tournament that can be won by a functional side such as Greece cannot be regarded as high-quality, but their achievement does not deserve to be undermined. They had some outstanding players including Giourkas Seitaridis, the right back, and Traianos Dellas, the former Sheffield United stopper. Some of their supposed superiors could learn from their organisation and team spirit.
“I don’t think it is bad for football,” Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Portugal coach, said, graciously. “Greece has a wonderful defence and they play on the mistakes of their opponents. It is up to us, the more offensive teams, to find a way past the system.”
That was something that Portugal dismally failed to do last night. They were collectively nervous and their most creative players disappointed. Deco was anonymous while, on the few occasions that Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo did evade their defensive shadows, they shot wide or failed to find the hapless Pauleta.
Rehhagel could hardly be blamed for a strategy that suited his players rather than the television audiences and, once Portugal had failed to score the early goal that was so vital, there was almost an inevitability about the winning goal. Predictably, it was from a set-piece, Greece’s only corner of the game, as Angelos Charisteas easily overpowered Costinha to head home in the 57th minute.
Having never won a match in a leading tournament before, Greece had not booked their hotel beyond the group stages, but they were wearing the medals of European champions whenever they got back to their rooms last night. No Englishman has ever achieved that, which was something for David Beckham to ponder if he was watching Theo Zagorakis lift the trophy.
The Greek captain encapsulates his team’s unlikely story because this is a player who, under Martin O’Neill, struggled to usurp Neil Lennon and Muzzy Izzet in the Leicester team. This was his 95th international and he still has not scored a goal but, like the rest of the five-man midfield, he negated more skilful opponents.
The same could be said of Stelios Giannakopoulos, who, along with Ronaldo, was one of only two Premiership representatives in the final. Giannakopoulos, who is not even a regular with Bolton Wanderers, cannot have flown out of the North West a month ago with expectations of playing in the final. He would not have been in the Greek team but for the suspension of Giorgios Karagounis.
Sam Allardyce’s man found himself on the left of a midfield that, to no one’s surprise but many people’s frustration, maintained the game-plan that had proved so effective against France and the Czech Republic in the previous two matches; stop the opposition playing as a first priority.
With Greece defending with their usual doggedness, there was little expectation that the tournament’s Golden Boot would be taken away from Milan Baros. Four of last night’s starters needed a hat-trick just to draw level with the Liverpool and Czech Republic forward’s tally of five. Baros will have been sitting at home safe in the knowledge that no one scores a hat-trick against Greece.
Figo shot just wide late on and, after he had been slipped behind the Greek defence, Ronaldo shot over the bar, but Antonios Nikopolidis will have had busier nights in goal. Scolari was reduced to pacing the technical area impotently. “We were better in some chapters of the game but they scored, we didn’t, so we have to congratulate them,” he said.
Michel Platini, the French legend and Uefa politician, had been among those bemoaning the progress of the Greeks to the final and no one disputes that football would quickly lose its charm if every team played this way. Unpredictability, though, is also part of the appeal.
PORTUGAL (4-2-3-1) 1 Ricardo — 13 Miguel (sub: 2 Paulo Ferreira, 43min), 4 Jorge Andrade, 16 Ricardo Carvalho, 14 Nuno Valente — 18 Maniche, 6 Costinha (sub: 10 Rui Costa, 61) — 17 C Ronaldo, 20 Deco, 7 L Figo — 9 Pauleta (sub: 21 Nuno Gomes, 74). Substitutes not used: 12 Quim, 22 J Moreira, 3 Rui Jorge, 5 F Couto, 8 Petit, 11 S Simão, 15 Beto, 19 Tiago, 23 H Postiga. Booked: Costinha, Nuno Valente.
GREECE (4-1-2-2-1) 1 A Nikopolidis — 2 G Seitaridis, 19 M Kapsis, 5 T Dellas, 14 P Fyssas — 21 K Katsouranis — 7 T Zagorakis, 6 A Basinas — 8 S Giannakopoulos (sub: 3 S Venetidis, 76), 9 A Charisteas — 15 Z Vryzas (sub: 22 D Papadopoulos, 81). Substitutes not used: 12 K Chalkias, 13 T Katergiannakis, 4 N Dabizas, 10 V Tsiartas, 16 P Kafes, 17 G Georgiadis, 18 I Goumas, 23 V Lakis. Booked: Basinas, Seitaridis, Fyssas, Papadopoulos.
Referee: M Merk (Germany).
RESULTS THAT SHOCKED WORLD
Denmark win 1992 European Championship.
Invited only after Yugoslavia were forced to withdraw because of civil war, Denmark finish above England and France in group stage before beating Holland and Germany to lift trophy.
United States 1, England 0, 1950 World Cup finals.
Joe Gaetjens scores only goal of game, after which newspaper editor in London thinks result is misprint for 10-1.
North Korea 1, Italy 0, 1966 World Cup finals.
Injury forces Italy to play last hour with ten men and North Korea, whose players were compared to Italy’s version of Charlie Chaplin by their scout beforehand, win through Pak Doo-Ik’s goal.
Cameroon 1, Argentina 0, 1990 World Cup finals.
The champions, led by Diego Maradona, lose opening game of tournament to a header by François Omam Biyick.
Senegal 1, France 0, 2002 World Cup finals.
World and European champions face team full of second-rate French league players and fall to goal by Papa Bouba Diop.
BILL EDGAR
