Athenians offer heroes' return to Greek team

Hundreds of thousands of frenetic fans welcomed surprise Greece home from their victorious Euro 2004 tournament in Portugal.

Hundreds of thousands of frenetic fans welcomed surprise European champions Greece home from their victorious Euro 2004 tournament in Portugal on Monday.

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Upon the sight of the 23 players and their German coach Otto Rehhagel more than 35,000 people turned the Panathinaikon stadium in central Athens into a boiling pot.

Paroxysm reached its peak when team captain Theo Zagorakis lifted the cup amid a sea of supporters draped in white-blue Greek flags. Some of the players took off their T-shirts, dancing topless in front of the crowd.

"Lift the cup, I can't wait any longer," the crowds shouted. "The German is crazy," the fans cheered in appreciation at the team's eccentric German coach Rehhagel.

Fans were rhythmically screaming "Ole, ole," each time one of the players shook the cup. Then, tens of thousands of fans sang the Greek national hymn.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered around the stadium and filled the Athens streets, cheering the bus all the way along its triumphal 35-km trip from the Athens airport to the venue.

Players were offered Christian Orthodox crosses by the leader of the Greek church Archbishop Christodoulos -- the first official to welcome the team. Christodoulos had said before the final that he would pray for a Greek victory.

"Greeks can be proud of their team," Rehhagel said in the celebration.

The ceremony, scheduled for 1730 GMT started two hours late as the bus carrying the team had to inch its way forward through thick, enthusiastic crowds.

A huge convoy of honking cars and motorbikes trailed the bus. Most nationwide television channels tuned in with live broadcasts.

Scenes of joy followed the team's triumphal march to the city centre as spectators on the side, and sometimes on the middle of the road, cheered and waved flags.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of airport employees and around 1,500 fans broke out in ecstatic cheers when the team's flight from Lisbon touched down in Athens airport around 1615 GMT.

The plane was immediately saluted by two fire engines which shot water streams into the air, forming an arch under which the plane crossed before docking.

"On such a day, you leave everything aside and join in the celebrations. It's a great day, full of glory. We still can't believe it, it's a dream come true," one fan Joseph Brouzos told AFP.

"We're the best, get us Brazil!" they chanted.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, Athens mayoress Dora Bakoyiannis and Greece's joined the celebrations in the stadium.

"Millions of Greeks in every corner of the world share today an unspeakable happiness. Greece is on the lips of the entire world... I am sure that this great joy will peak in the Olympics," Karamanlis said.

"This is the biggest and best message for the Olympic Games: That Athens is here, everything is wonderful, we filled this stadium, and another 100,000 are outside," Bakoyiannis said.

Police stopped traffic and banned parking in the roads adjacent to the venue -- an imposing white-marble stadium in which the first modern Olympics took place in 1896.

Street vendors were selling Greek flags and white T-shirts with the national emblem as early as Monday morning on the streets of the capital. "For the Panathinaikon stadium," they were screaming to bypassers.

The Greek press urged readers to drop everything to attend the celebration. An estimated four million people, out of a population of 11 million, poured onto the streets throughout the nation after Sunday's win.

And Defence Minister Spilios Spiliotopoulos warned that the welcome would be worthy of those bestowed on Greece's ancient heroes.

When ancient Greeks welcomed their Olympic champions home they symbolically tore down part of their city walls. With heroes such as these among their ranks, no walls were needed to defend them, they said.

"Today we welcome the national team and in our thoughts, we'll tear down our city's walls... they deserve it," Spiliotopoulos said.