2004: Underdogs have their day

The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, better known as Euro 2004, was the 12th European Football Championship, a quadrennial football tournament for European national teams. It was hosted in Portugal, for the first time, between 12 June and 4 July 2004, following its selection by UEFA, in 1999, over rival bids from Spain and Austria–Hungary. As in the previous tournaments in England and Netherlands–Belgium, sixteen teams contested the final tournament after going through a qualification round, which began in late 2002. The tournament took place in ten venues located in eight cities: Aveiro, Braga, Coimbra, Guimarães, Faro/Loulé, Leiria, Porto and Lisbon.

Having also beaten the hosts in the opening game of UEFA EURO 2004, Otto Rehhagel's Greece pulled off one of the biggest shocks in tournament history by accounting for Portugal in the final.

Theodoros Zagorakis lifts trophy after Greece defeated Portugal 1-0 in the final

Before UEFA EURO 2004 kicked off, the normal talk was of which superstar and their team would come out on top in the battle for the European title. In the end, a totally unsung group of players were to triumph in one of European football's greatest surprises.

Greece went into the competition as rank outsiders. However, few people had taken notice of their increasingly impressive qualifying campaign, in which they lost their first two matches, but won the next six, conceding no goals in that excellent run.<.p>

In what was a splendid month-long festival of football in the Portuguese sun, the Greeks, a solid, pragmatic side which played to their strengths, confounded one team after another, and fully deserved their title in the end. They were coached by Otto Rehhagel, a veteran German who had massive club experience, in particular with Werder Bremen and FC Bayern München in his native country.

The shrewd Rehhagel succeeded in knitting together his squad and coaxing them into an iron discipline that initially frustrated and eventually broke every opponent. In the opening match in Porto, they shocked the fervent home support by beating the Portuguese hosts 2-1.

In the quarter-finals, the holders France were unable to cope with Greece's determination and crashed to defeat. The semi-finals saw the Czech Republic, many people's competition favourites after some fine early displays, eliminated by an extra-time Greek silver goal, key man Pavel Nedvěd having departed injured in the first half.

The final itself in Lisbon was a tightly fought affair. Portugal, coached by Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari, had battled back from that opening-day shock, and were desperate to give their fans a memorable climax. But the Greeks had other ideas.

As in previous matches, a no-nonsense defence marshalled by the tough central defender Traianos Dellas, a combative midfield led by eventual player of the tournament Theodoris Zagorakis, and an opportunist striker in the shape of Angelos Charisteas broke Portugal's hearts. A single Charisteas header from a corner near the hour-mark gave Greece a triumph that was beyond their wildest dreams.

For some of the continents biggest stars the tournament was clouded with disappointment. Zinédene Zidane and France, despite a dramatic group-match comeback to beat England, never regained past heights. England and David Beckham promised much, fired by brilliant teenage striker Wayne Rooney, but fell to Portugal in a dramatic quarter-final penalty shoot-out.

Spain failed to get out of second gear, and the much-fancied Dutch came unstuck against Portugal in the semi-final. Ultimately, it was a team without recognisable stars that conquered Europe. Greece's stunning success provided an example to the rest of the continent: with hard work, belief, the necessary good fortune, and unbending team spirit, anything is possible.

Results

Final
Portugal 0-1 Greece
Semi-finals
Portugal	2-1	Netherlands	Greece	1-0	Czech Republic
Quarter-finals			Quarter-finals
Portugal	2-2	（agg 6-5）England	France	0-1	Greece
Quarter-finals			Quarter-finals
Sweden	0-0	（agg 4-5）Netherlands	Czech Republic	3-0	Denmark
Group stage
Group A			Group B
Portugal Spain Greece Russia Spain Russia	1-2 1-0 1-1 0-2 0-1 2-1	Greece Russia Spain Portugal Portugal Greece	Switzerland France England Croatia Croatia Switzerland	0-0 2-1 3-0 2-2 2-4 1-3	Croatia England Switzerland France England France
Group C			Group D
Denmark Sweden Bulgaria Italy Italy Denmark	0-0 5-0 0-2 1-1 1-1 2-2	Italy Bulgaria Denmark Sweden Bulgaria Sweden	Czech Republic Germany Latvia Netherlands Netherlands Germany	2-1 1-1 0-0 2-3 3-0 1-2	Latvia Netherlands Germany Czech Republic Latvia Czech Republic

UEFA Team of the Tournament

Goalkeepers	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Petr Čech(Czech Republic) Antonios Nikopolidis(Greece)	Sol Campbell(England) Ashley Cole(England) Traianos Dellas(Greece) Olof Mellberg(Sweden) Ricardo Carvalho(Portugal) Giourkas Seitaridis(Greece) Gianluca Zambrotta(Italy)	Michael Ballack(Germany) Luís Figo(Portugal) Frank Lampard(England) Maniche(Portugal) Pavel Nedvěd(Czech Republic) Theodoros Zagorakis(Greece) Zinedine Zidane(France)	Milan Baroš(Czech Republic) Angelos Charisteas(Greece) Henrik Larsson(Sweden) Cristiano Ronaldo(Portugal) Wayne Rooney(England) Jon Dahl Tomasson(Denmark) Ruud van Nistelrooy(Netherlands)

UEFA Tournament Golden Boot Award

Milan Baroš(Czech Republic)

UEFA Player of the Tournament

Theodoros Zagorakis(Greece)

Venues

Lisbon	Lisbon	Porto	Aveiro
Estádio da Luz	Estádio José Alvalade	Estádio do Dragão	Estádio Municipal de Aveiro
Capacity: 65,647	Capacity: 50,466	Capacity: 50,476	Capacity: 30,970
Coimbra	Braga	Guimarães	Faro/Loulé
Estádio Cidade de Coimbra	Estádio Municipal de Braga	Estádio D. Afonso Henriques	Estádio Algarve
Capacity: 30,210	Capacity: 30,154	Capacity: 30,146	Capacity: 30,002
Porto	Leiria
Estádio do Bessa Século XXI	Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa
Capacity: 28,263	Capacity: 23,850