How Greece beat Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal to win Euro 2004

Even after years as the voice of football in Greece, Georgios Helakis could scarcely have imagined the impact of an optimistic but throwaway line ahead of the opening game of Euro 2004.

With Greece poised to face home favourites Portugal in front of a deafening Lisbon crowd, Helakis declared: “It’s time for us to become pirates and steal the victory."

Over the following 90 minutes and subsequent month, Greece snatched so many wins they ended the tournament with the Henri Delaunay trophy among their booty. Piratiko - the pirate ship - as they would come to be known, are responsible for the single greatest upset in the history of men's international football.

Here's how Greece managed to topple a bevvy of star names - chief among them Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo - along the way to the greatest heist of all.

How Greece qualified for Euro 2004

As Andriy Voronin wheeled away in stoppage time to celebrate Ukraine's second goal in Kyiv, Greece looked as far away from their European title as ever. After an opening day defeat to Spain, Greece were rooted to the foot of their qualification group.

Yet, a run of six consecutive victories and clean sheets, including a famous 1-0 win against Spain in Zaragoza, propelled Otto Rehhagel's side to the top of the Group 6 table.

Nevertheless, this run of form didn't inspire a great deal of confidence ahead of the finals in Portugal.

Group 6 table

Greece’s pre-tournament hopes for Euro 2004

Going into the tournament, Greece were ranked 35th in the world, sandwiched between Tunisia and Norway. In the history of the men’s national team, Greece had played six matches at major tournaments, scoring once, conceding 14 and failing to take the lead for a single second.

While the rest of the world had already written them off and much of the squad was simply trying to avoid humiliation, Rehhagel was more optimistic than most.

“If someone said we wouldn’t do very well at the Euros, Mr Rehhagel always turned to me and said: ‘They don’t know what we know.’” the German manager's trusted assistant coach and translator Ioannis Topalidis remembered. Not for the last time, Rehhagel proved to know what he was talking about.

Greece’s route to the final of Euro 2004

Before the opening game against tournament hosts Portugal, Rehhagel delivered a rallying cry to his troops: “We fought and struggled to come here. We suffered, we endured. They don’t have anything, they are here because they are the organisers.”

The stinging words inspired Greece to a score through Giorgos Karagounis after just seven minutes. Set-piece specialist Angelos Basinas converted a second-half penalty to double the lead before Ronaldo came off the bench to nod in a 93rd-minute consolation.

Greece held Spain to a draw but suffered their only defeat of the tournament in the final group game against Russia, letting the pressure of actually being expected to reach the knockout stages get the best of them. Portugal's victory over neighbours Spain was celebrated almost as much by Greece as those in the Lisbon streets.

A typically narrow victory courtesy of thumping header from Angelos Charisteas against France in the quarter-finals proved to be a watershed moments, as members from the Greek squad aside from Rehhagel began to believe. However, several players first had to cancel holidays and weddings scheduled for the week of a semi-final none had anticipated.

Keeping an extra player in front of the defence to nullify a generational Czech Republic side, Greece were forced into extra time for the only time that summer. Traianos Dellas popped up with a silver goal, steering another header over the line in the 106th minute to set up a rematch of the opening fixture against Portugal.

How Greece beat Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal in the final of Euro 2004

“Of course we weren’t Brazilians, Spaniards or Germans," Nikos Dabizas explained to The Guardian, "we had to be realistic, relying on defence, taking advantage of set pieces and being very effective on the counter.”

Rehhagel, a wily three-time winner of the Bundesliga, was integral to instilling this stubborn structure. “He has improved the squad incredibly and a huge piece of the victory goes to him as well,” Stelios Giannakopoulos gushed at the time. “He’s like our father. We love him.”

A core group of characters was fundamental to this approach, with Rehhagel limiting the number of players used as the ideal was greater than the individual. “He created a spine of players and he trusted them all over his reign," Giorgos Karagounis, one of the vertebrae, said. "There were other footballers giving good performances for two or three months, but he didn’t bother."

Charisteas played in seven different leagues as a 6’3 journeyman striker. He never broke double digits but finished 11th in the 2004 Ballon d’Or - above Ronaldo (and Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Samuel Eto’o) - thanks largely to a scruffy 57th-minute header at the near post in the final.

Ronaldo was on the end of Portugal’s two best chances in the final half-hour of the showpiece but passed up both sights of goal carved open by a pair of perfectly weighted through balls from the regal Rui Costa.

The referee's whistle blew for the final time that summer and Ronaldo broke down in tears. “We ask for forgiveness from the Portuguese people,” Portugal manager Luiz Felipe Scolari pleaded in vain, though he could scarcely be heard over the defiant cheers of the travelling Greek support.

What happened to Greece after Euro 2004?

Greece failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup and produced the worst performance of any nation in the subsequent Euros, bowing out of the group stage after three successive defeats to Sweden, Russia and Spain as reigning champions.

Rehhagel stayed on until World Cup 2010, overseeing the nation’s first-ever goal and victory in the competition but the journey ended in the group stage again.

Fernando Santos replaced Rehhagel as another stone-faced manager as dour as they are tactically adept. Santos steered Greece to the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 but the nation, amid a treacherous economic downfall, has never again come close to the heights of 2004.

But that doesn’t matter. If there is one country that can appreciate a historical achievement, it’s Greece.

As Charisteas said: “Even in 50 years' time, everybody will remember that I scored the goal which made Greece the champions of Europe. We wrote history.”