Episode 2627
UEFA Euro 2004 final
Sun, 2024-Jul-14 01:01 UTC
Length - 4:02
Direct Link
Welcome to Featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia’s finest articles.
The featured article for Sunday, 14 July 2024 is UEFA Euro 2004 final.
The UEFA Euro 2004 final was the final match of Euro 2004, the 12th 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, the latter playing in their second European Championship. 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 they played each other in the opening game, Greece winning 2–1 in what BBC Sport labelled a "shock defeat" for the hosts. Portugal won their other two group games, 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 in a penalty shoot-out and then the Netherlands, and Greece beat France in the quarter-final and the Czech Republic in the semi-final.
The final took place in front of 62,865 supporters and was refereed by Markus Merk from Germany. Portugal made several early runs towards the opposition goal, and Greek goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis had to make the first save of the match from a shot by Miguel. Angelos Charisteas almost scored for Greece two minutes after that, before a Maniche shot for Portugal from the edge of the Greek penalty area went narrowly wide. The two defences ensured that goal-scoring opportunities were limited, and the score was 0–0 at half-time. Deco had a penalty appeal turned down early in the second half, and it was Greece who took the lead after 57 minutes of the game. Angelos Basinas took Greece's first corner of the match, which was met by Charisteas, who sent a powerful header past goalkeeper Ricardo. Cristiano Ronaldo had an immediate chance to equalise, but his shot from just outside the penalty area was saved by Nikopolidis. Portugal had further chances through Luís Figo and Maniche, and on 74 minutes Ronaldo hit a shot over the crossbar when he was through on goal with only the goalkeeper to beat. Greece held on to complete a 1–0 victory.
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". Greece subsequently failed to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and did not successfully defend their European Championship in 2008. Portugal eventually won the European Championship in 2016.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:01 UTC on Sunday, 14 July 2024.
For the full current version of the article, see UEFA Euro 2004 final on Wikipedia.
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Until next time, I'm standard Joey.
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