Greeks take victory in their stride
Sunday, June 13, 2004
Article summary
The Greece camp was surprisingly composed on the day after their shock defeat of hosts Portugal in Lisbon.
Article body
Despite yesterday's shock defeat of host nation Portugal at the Estádio do Dragão, the Greek camp was surprisingly composed this morning.
'Discipline and organisation'
Their 2-1 win was down to "discipline and organisation" according to midfield player Angelos Basinas. The Panathinaikos FC captain, whose second-half penalty doubled the Greeks' lead, said: "You never expect to lose a match before it starts, it's always 50-50. The secret of our success was that we stifled our opponents' game."
Unbeaten run
Echoing his team-mate's sentiments, goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis told euro2004.com: "We did not allow them to play their game, we were focused and organised. Now we have to keep our feet on the ground and look ahead to the next match." Portugal's late consolation goal ended Nikopolidis's run of six consecutive clean sheets in competitive matches, but did not stop their sequence of victories in this competition - qualifiers included - stretching to seven.
Great support
Midfield player Georgios Karagounis, who scored the opening goal of the tournament, paid tribute to the 3,000 Greek supporters inside the stadium. "It's always great to receive such support playing for the national team, especially when it's an away match," the FC Internazionale player said. "I experienced something similar at Panathinaikos FC in the [UEFA] Champions League, but nothing can compare to this."
Quiet confidence
Only Stelios Giannakopoulos refused to play down the result. "Without doubt this is the greatest success in the national squad's history," the Bolton Wanderers FC player said. It is a success that Konstantinos Katsouranis hopes will spur the team on. "We are proud of the result and we proved that it wasn't luck that got us to the finals," he said. "If we play the same way in the remaining matches then we have a very good chance to qualify."
Two rested
Greece's next match is against Spain on Wednesday. Regarding today's training, Karagounis did not train today to rest a troublesome ankle while Giourkas Seitaridis also sat out to protect a minor knock but neither are considered serious problems.
