Story of the Underdogs: How Greece Won Euro ‘04

I don’t think a lot of people expected this going into Euro 2004.

Greece was not considered a football powerhouse. They’d only managed to qualify for Euros one other time, in 1980, and in that tournament they didn’t manage to win a single game.

Their next major tournament was World Cup 1994 where got slaughtered, conceding 10 goals and scoring 0. So expectations in 2004 were not high.

The French didn’t expect to lose to them. The Czechs didn’t expect it either. And the Portuguese? They didn’t expect to lose to them once. Let alone twice. (Once in the group stage and again in the final.)

Before the tournament, bookmakers were giving Greece odds of between 80-1 and 150-1 to win. And yet they did it, squeaking through the group stage over Spain based on tie-breaks after finishing level both on points and goal differential.

Then they got a shock victory over France in the quarterfinals, 1-0. They followed it up with an even more shocking 1-0 victory in extra time over the Czechs, who had finished with a perfect nine points in the group stage.

In the final against Portugal, it all came down to one Angelos Charisteas goal in the 57th minute. Greece 1-0 Portugal.

And Greece, the 150-1 underdogs, were the Euro 2004 champions.

You need to watch this video, if only to hear the shocked joy in the announcer’s voice every time Greece scores.