Win will have a great impact

Hellas! Hellas! was the chant from the hordes of Greeks as the unimaginable happened in Lisbon. The stadium was a sea of blue as the Greeks went wild after yet another upset!

Hellas! Hellas! ( Greece! Greece!) was the chant from the hordes of Greeks as the unimaginable happened in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. The stadium was a sea of blue as the Greeks went wild after yet another upset!

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Greece, who had never won a game in a major tournament prior to Euro 2004, beat Portugal for the second time in the competition to lift the trophy. It was that man again Charisteas who scored the winner, his third of the tournament, in the 63rd minute to send the Greeks into raptures. Truly amazing. I had tipped Greece as the dark horse of the tournament and even I am surprised!

It is hard to put things into perspective and, of course, the repercussions this win will have on Greek football! When you look at the teams in the tournament -- France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and England -- how can you visualise Greece winning even one game, let alone the trophy? But win they did. This is the beauty of football. There are no guarantees. With hard work and belief anything is possible.

Looking back over the last two weeks we have had it all - great games, thrilling moments, controversies and, of course, upsets. Starting with Latvia who came for a week in sunny Portugal and no chance to do anything except take a beating, their first game should have been a warning -- that on their day they can play a bit and it was the disappointing Germans who found out the hard way. The 0-0 draw against them ultimately cost them a knock-out berth.

The Dutch who could only manage to beat Latvia were also a disappointment and though they managed to get to the semis after beating the Swedes in a penalty shoot- out were no match for Portugal. The Czech Republic, along with the Portuguese, played some of the most exciting football.

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