Greece has done in 2004 what England never managed because it didn't throw away the lead!
With 20 years distance since the biggest surprise in European football, maybe in world football, of Greece winning the European Championship back in 2004, honestly I can say that the Greek national team did exactly what England should have done in more than one cases in the past... Being more clinical and cynical and not throw away the lead. Sounds simple, right? But at the same time is the most difficult thing in football!
By Christos SOTIRAKOPOULOS
There were moaning and groaning abroad that Greece didn't deserve the crown back in 2004 in those memorable for all Greeks days and nights, but we should look upon it with... tenderness!
For an example, what England did differently than Greece against Portugal? The small but signicant matter that threw away the lead while Greece did not. That game that finished 2-2 presented England with the greatest chance to win a major tournament up to the final of Euro 2020.
So back to Greece that in 2004 was the best team in a tournament that lasts for a month. Some might say that we were not the best before 12th of June and will never be again in the future. But for a month thoroughly deserved it. Greeks beat the hosts twice and the holders of the cup as well. Nobody has ever done that in a Euro tournament before or after.
Then Greece beat the Czechs, who they were the best team in the finals. And the team of King Otto didn't need a single penalty shoot out! Greece went through without giving away a goal in all the knock out stages through to the final. What else they could do?
Maybe it didn't make the most spectacular of European Championships the unfancied team to win. But with the Greeks victory had opened the door of the hope for everyone. The trophies may not be in the future again a privilege of an elitistic club.
And only for that matter football should be grateful to Otto Rehhagel and the unsung heroes like the MVP of the tournament Theodoros Zagorakis and the goalscorer of the final Angelos Charisteas. And yes, it was a huge surprise (probably the biggest of them all), but boy oh biy, didn’t Greece deserved it thoroughly?