Fans toast 'amazing victory'

'Big day'
"I am very happy because my country won [UEFA] EURO 2004™, but I still don't believe this," said 18-year-old George Veziris. His sentiments were echoed by his elder brother Chris: "This is wonderful. This is only the second time Greece have participated in a [UEFA] European Championship, so this is a very big day for us."

'New feeling'
Stavros Tsirakidis, 31, was registering the Greek celebrations on his video camera. "It's great!" he exclaimed. "This is a completely new feeling for us – we haven't taken part in a European Championship for 24 years, and when we play we win the title."

'Sure of victory'
Some supporters, however, were not so surprised by the result. "We were sure of victory before the match because we defeated a lot of big names in football, like France and the Czech Republic," said 21-year-old Nick Gritzalis. "This is a great occasion for us Greeks. I am crazy about it. Now we hope to win the [FIFA] World Cup."

'Excited and proud'
"This is the first time we win a major tournament – imagine how good it is," added 28-year-old Thanassis Tzanos, who was celebrating with his girlfriend. "It's a great feeling, and we are very excited and proud of our national team."

'Amazing victory'
The happiness of a nation was summed up by Oliver Petrakakos, 18: "This is the first time we achieve something like this in football - we had never won a match before, and now we go straight to winning the cup! It's an amazing victory, and in Greece people are in the streets celebrating right now."