UEFA Euro 2004 shock

 

Our story began at September 2002 when Greece was at UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying Group 6 with Armenia, Northern Ireland, Spain and Ukraine.
7 September 2002 Greece lost from Spain with 0-2 final score. 12 October 2002 Greece lost again this time from Ukraine again with 2-0 final score, Euro 2004 groups seems as a dream for Greece. 4 days later Greece won Armenia at Greece with final score 2-0. 2 April 2003 arrived and Greek national team won again with final score 0-2 this time the Northern Ireland. Now the diference of goals became 0, but the race for 1st position at group still standing with Spain lost only 2 points from tie with Ukraine back at 29 March 2003. 7 June 2003 and most important match at group started Spain vs Greece. It was 0-0 till the 42th minute when Stelios Giannakopoulos scored the first goal for Greece, that was the final score also. Now Greece rised to 1st position of the group and the Greek Football Federation(EPO) started feel ok with the decision to make Otto Rehangel coach of Greek national team! 4 days later another important match for Greece started this time against Ukraine, Greece won that match also and in combination with 0-0 between Northern Ireland and Spain, the team kept 1st place and made the difference at points bigger against the 2nd place team(Spain). 6 September 2003 with Greece at 1st place of Group 6 another win this time against Armenia with final score 1-0. 11 October 2003 the final match for Euro groupstage qualifying has just started Spain won very easy Armenia with final score 0-4, and Greece won 1-0 Northern Ireland, that was enough for Greek team to keep 1st position at group and qualified for Euro 2004 directly, Spain was qualified too but from playoffs. The final table was:

Pos Team Pts

1          Greece        18

2           Spain         17

3          Ukraine      10

4          Armenia       7

5          N. Ireland     3

UEFA Euro 2004:

 

The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The final tournament was hosted for the first time in Portugal, from 12 June to 4 July 2004. A total of 31 matches were played in ten venues across eight cities – Aveiro, Braga, Coimbra, Guimarães, Faro/Loulé, Leiria, Lisbon, and Porto.

As in 1996 and 2000, the final tournament was contested by 16 teams: the hosts plus the 15 teams that came through the qualifying tournament, which began in September 2002. Latvia secured their first participation in a major tournament after overcoming Turkey in the play-offs, while Greece returned to the European Championship after 24 years.

The tournament was rich in surprises and upsets: traditional powerhouses Germany, Spain, and Italy were eliminated in the group stage, while defending champions France were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Greece. Portugal recovered from an opening defeat against Greece to reach the final, eliminating England and the Netherlands along the way. For the first time in a major European football tournament, the last match featured the same teams as the opening match. Portugal were again defeated by Greece with a goal from Angelos Charisteas. Greece's triumph was unexpected, considering that they had only qualified for two other major tournaments: UEFA Euro 1980, at which they managed just one point, and the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where they lost all three matches. As winners, Greece earned the right to represent Europe at the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup.

During the opening ceremony, one of the tableaux depicted a ship – symbolising the voyages of the Portuguese explorers – sailing through a sea that transformed into the flags of all competing countries. In the closing ceremony, Portuguese-Canadian singer Nelly Furtado performed her single and official tournament theme song, "Força".

Road to Final:

It was 12 June 2004 when the Euro 2004 officialy started. Which teams played at 1st game? Of course the host country Portugal against Greece at stadium Dragao. Greece took only 6 minutes to score the first goal by Giorgos Karagounis one powerful shoot outside the goalkeeper area. At 51th minute Giourkas Seitaridis made a run till goalkeeper area when Cristiano Ronaldo(19 years old) fouled to him. The referee gave poenalty without think of it twice, and Angelos Basinas hitted the penalty and made the goals twice for Greece and 0 for Portugal. Till 90 there was no goals from both sides, at 90+3 Portugal won one corner, Luis Figo kicked and Cristiano Ronaldo scored with header! this was the last action at game. 16 June 2004 second phase of groupstage at Euro 2004 started it's time 2 teams from same qualifying group to face each other Greece vs Spain at Estádio do Bessa XXI - Porto. Fernando Morientes scored the first goal of Match at 28 minute for Spain. But at 66th minute Angelos Charisteas had a different opinion and scored the 1-1 for Greek national team and that was and the final score of match. 
Lineups:

20 june 2004 and final matches at groupstage arrived. It's time for Greece to face Russia(with 2 lost matches till now) at Estádio Algarve - Faro-Loulé. It took only 2 minutes for first goal to scored by Dmitri Kirichenko for Russia. Only 15 minutes later Russia scored again this time with Dmitri Bulykin and all seems that Portugal and Spain will qualify to next round. But at 43th minute a miracle happened Zisis Vryzas scored for Greece and made it 2-1. At second half, both sides not scored another goal. At another match Portugal won 1-0 Spain and suddenly the Greek national team had same points with Spain but qualified to next round due to tiebreakers!

Tiebrakers Euro 2004:

1. Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;

2. Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;

3. Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;

4. Superior goal difference in all group matches;

5. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;

6. Higher coefficient derived from 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying and UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying (points obtained divided by number of matches played);

7. Fair play conduct of the team in the final tournament;

8. Drawing of lots.

Estádio José Alvalade - Lisbon, 25 June 2004 knockout stage match(8 teams) between Euro 2000 winners(France) and Greece. The match was 0-0 till 65th minute when Zagorakis made a run from right side and he made a lofted pass for Angelos Charisteas head, the score suddenly became 0-1 for Greece. This was the first and last goal of match, enough for Greece to qualify for semi-final of the competition!
Lineups:

So is time for Greece to face one another surprise of Euro 2004 and one of the best outsiders of the whole competition. We are talking for Czech Republic. 1 July 2004 at Estadio do Dragao. Hard to die Greece vs the most formed team of competition. At 40th minute Pavel Nedved injured seriously and he left his position for Vladimir Smicer, now Czech Republic must play without their normal captain. The match ended 0-0 at 90th minute and they leaded to extra time(Euro 2004 had silver goal rule for extra time). Extra time first half seems to be also 0-0 but at 105+1 minute Greek national team won corner kick and they made the whole team go at Petr Cech area. Vasilis Tsiartas kicked the corner kick and he found between all the crowd at area Traianos Dellas head, this was the first goal of match and last cause due to silver goal there was no 2nd half at extra time. Greece is at Euro 2004 final for first time of their history, UNBELIEVABLE!!!
Lineups:

There was Sunday 4 July 2004 when competition final arrived at Estadio Da Luz - Lisbon. Time for competition to close as opened with Portugal vs Greece again to face each other. After one small ceremony the final started. First half ended 0-0. Second half started, after 12 minutes of match Greece got a corner kick, this time Vasilis Tsiartas was at bench, so Angelos Basinas kicked it, and GOAL!!!! Angelos Charisteas made the header and Ricardo(Portugal Goalkeeper) can't save it! One and only goal of match enough for Greece to win the competition for first time at their history and last till today!!
Otto Rehangel made his miracle!!!
Details of Final:

Credits: Xarisk