UEFA Euro 2004 final

UEFA Euro 2004 final
	The Greece national team celebrating their win
Event	UEFA Euro 2004
Date	4 July 2004
Venue	Estádio da Luz, Lisbon
Man of the Match	Theodoros Zagorakis (Greece)
Referee	Markus Merk (Germany)
Attendance	62,865
Weather	Sunny; 28 °C (82 °F); 37% humidity
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The UEFA Euro 2004 final was the final match of UEFA Euro 2004, the twelfth European Championship, a football competition organised by UEFA for the senior men's national teams of its member associations. The match was played at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal, on 4 July 2004, and was contested by Portugal, the tournament's hosts, and Greece, in a rematch of the tournament's opening game.

The 16-team tournament consisted of a group stage, from which eight teams qualified for the knockout stage. Both finalists were drawn in Group A of the tournament, and played each other in the opening game, with Greece winning 2–1 in what BBC Sport labelled a "shock defeat" for the hosts. Portugal won their other two group matches, against Russia and Spain; Greece drew with Spain and lost to Russia, leaving Portugal top of the group and Greece second. In the knockout stage, Portugal beat England on penalties in the quarter-finals, and the Netherlands in the semi-finals. Greece, meanwhile, beat defending champions France in the quarter-finals, and the Czech Republic in the semi-finals via a silver goal.

The final took place in front of 62,865 supporters, and was refereed by Markus Merk from Germany. Greece scored the only goal in the match in the 57th minute, when Angelos Basinas' corner was met by Angelos Charisteas, who sent a powerful header past goalkeeper Ricardo. Greece held on to complete a shock 1–0 victory, winning their first title in just their second ever tournament appearance.

Several pundits labelled Greece's tournament win the greatest upset in the history of the European Championship; among these was BBC Sport's John May, who cited Greece's record of never having previously won a match at a major event and their pre-tournament bookmaker odds of 150–1. Otto Rehhagel, Greece's manager, said after the game that "it was an unusual achievement for Greek football and especially for European football", while Portugal manager Luiz Felipe Scolari expressed pain at the result, saying that Greece were the better team and lamenting that Portugal had been beaten by "one piece of sloppy defending". As winners, Greece qualified for the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup in Germany as UEFA's representatives. However, they subsequently failed to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.