Portugal 1 - 2 Greece

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What can i say. i stayed up late to watch this match. No disappointing at all at the result. Greece did everything they can. The fan ration according to the commentator is 50:1 and yet they had a bigger cheer. i know there are Greeks in this forum, may i ask, did you, for once, even think you guys can win this? i mean, i remembered world cup 94, opening match, Argentina vs Greece. i had high hopes since Argentina is like an arrow at the end of its flight (cannot even penetrates a paper). And Greece lost 4 nil. In fact, i don't even remember Greece win any match in big tournament.

The Portuguese coach did a great job to let Greece win this. Home match, fan ratio 50:1, overall better players with Figo and yet he started with a formation of one lonely striker. Good thinking!

[ June 12, 2004, 22:04: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

Well personally I didn't believe that we could win, since the Portugese are far better players, but I know many people who believed in victory. Of course there were also many people who feared that we would see the nightmare of 1994 again. All the credit for this victory as well as for our participation in the tournament belong to Otto Rehagel, the coach of the team. He knew the abilities and the weaknesses of the players, he knew that he can't face Portugal with an open game tactic and so he choose a "guerilla warfare" tactic. In addition he managed to inspire the players and to boost their morale.
This victory is indeed our first victory in a major tournament (we haven't participate in many tournaments anyway, just in 1980 Euro, 1994 World Cup and this one), iirc our best result so far was a draw with Germany in 1980.

 

Shock result

 

Not really a shock. It was a match that could go either way. Portugal's problem is that they have too many players who like to dribble too long, too many players who seem to be in love with the ball. Guys like Figo and Ronaldo can do more damage to the teamconcept than good. It's a fact that they're both great individuals, but as teamplayers they don't pull their weight. Portugal's offence looked completely helpless against a very modest opponent, not very hopeful for the remainder of the tournament.

 

Big surprise, but looking at the way portugal played they deserved it.

Anyway shouldn't we make a general EC thread for the entire tournement?

 

I wasnt overly surprised at the result. After having read some about Greece and how they played I thought they had a good chance to win against Portugal if they made them frustrated and that is exactly what they did. I only saw the end of the second half due to a flight but what I saw confirmed what I thought might happen. Portugal furiously attacking an unfazed dense Greek defence.

 

That wasn't what most of the game was like though

Portugal were pretty poor for most of the game, and didn't really have many good chances to score (plenty of shots off target though)

I thought Portugal would be one of the best teams in the competition, but apart from the odd spell where they looked dangerous, they failed to impress