Greek bonus for Bolton

By Chris Deary

When Stylianos Giannakopoulos joined Bolton Wanderers FC last summer he was expecting a different kind of challenge. Having just won his seventh successive league title with Olympiacos CFP and scored the winner in Greece's UEFA EURO 2004™ qualifier against Spain, he was joining a club who have never won the English league and are more familiar with relegation battles than lifting trophies.

Cup final
But victory over Aston Villa FC in the semi-final of the League Cup has put Bolton just one game against Middlesbrough FC away from a place in next season's UEFA Cup. The 27-year-old midfield player knows what this would mean to his new club. "It would be good for everybody," he told uefa.com. "Not just for me but for all the players, the club and the supporters. It's a very big thing. Getting to the final is a great achievement and I'm very proud to be part of it."

Top talent
Bolton have never played in a major European competition, but manager Sam Allardyce has used free signings and loans to build a team of players with proven quality. Iván Campo won the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid CF, Jay-Jay Okocha has played in three FIFA World Cups and Youri Djorkaeff has won just about everything going.

Bolton prepared
Giannakopoulos has also played in the Champions League with Olympiacos and is certain that Bolton can play at a higher level. "This club is ready for big things," he said. "The pressures are very big, but I'm used to it. We are very tough, we are very happy and we all work very hard. Everybody contributes to the success. It's down to the hard work and planning that was done at the start of the season."

Difficult start
Having finished second top scorer in the Hellenic National League last season, Giannakopoulos has a reputation as a goalscoring midfielder, but it took him three months to register his first Premiership goal. "I had some hard days, especially in the beginning," he said.

Maximum effort
Since then he has not looked back. Four goals, including a spectacular overhead strike against Villa, have coincided with Bolton's ascent into the top half of the Premiership and helped them qualify for their first major final in nine years. "I always try and give my best for the club and I have been given time to adjust so I can give 100 per cent," he said. "I never imagined it would be so easy to become a member of this squad."

High point
Regular Premiership football has certainly done his international hopes no harm. Greece face Spain at EURO 2004™ having won 1-0 last June in Zaragoza in what proved the decisive game in qualifying Group 6 - Giannakopoulos scoring the spectacular winner. "That is one of the best memories from my career," he said. "It was a very big day for me and for the history of Greek football. To score the winner against Spain away from home was amazing and I hope it will happen again."

Dreaming of Portugal
Greece also meet hosts Portugal in the opening game of the tournament on 12 June and Giannakopoulos is hoping to cap a successful first season in English football by causing another upset. "We have a very tough group and it would be a massive achievement to get to the second round," he said. "But nobody expected us to win the qualifying group and we did. You just never know in football. I always have hopes and dreams. If you don't have dreams then you can't play football."