EURO 2004/Semi-Finals: Czech Republic 0 Greece 1 Even unexpected success sometimes comes at a cost writes Emmet Malone in Porto

Take the Greek players who apparently took their own chances of reaching the semi-finals so lightly that they sold themselves rather short in the pre-tournament bonus-payment negotiations with their association and had to threaten a strike before last night's meeting at the Dragao Stadium in order to put the situation right.

The blazers clearly caved in under the pressure for in the end there wasn't even a hint of a go-slow from Otto Rehhagel's men. Once again they battled obstinately against supposedly superior forces and one again they came out on top. Their reward this time, against all the odds, is a place in Sunday's final against Portugal, which they secured thanks to their towering central defender, Traianos Dellas, who headed a Vasilios Tsiartas corner past Petr Cech from the near post to score a 105th-minute silver goal.

The breakthrough marked the end of a tightly contested battle in which the Czechs had for long periods looked the more likely to score. Having enjoyed two extra days of rest since their quarter-final victory over France, however, it was the Greeks who were to dominate the 15 minutes of extra time played and they might have led from midway through it but for a couple of great reaction saves from Cech.

Karel Bruckner and his players, who looked devastated at the end, will wonder how differently things might have turned out had their skipper and highly inventive midfielder Pavel Nedved not had to limp out of the game late in its first half. It had looked as though he might be in for a rough evening from as early as the first minute when Pierluigi Collina had to warn Konstantinos Katsouranis about a late challenge on the Juventus midfielder. The 31-year-old had little trouble picking himself up after the tackle and seconds later floated in a free that Jan Koller headed back for Tomas Rosicky, who then struck a fine first-time volley that came crashing off the crossbar.

The Czech's inspirational captain, though, was the victim of a bizarre knock inside a tightly packed penalty box 34 minutes in and while he struggled on for a while, he had to be replaced shortly afterwards with Vladimir Smicer. It was a huge loss for the Czechs. Smicer had done well after coming on early against the Dutch but here Nedved had again been at the centre of his side's best passing movements and had, on more than one occasion, threatened to skip through the Greek defence.

The movement by both sides was good but while Theodoros Zagorakis stood out as the key figure in the centre of the Greek midfield, the remainder of the Czech line across the centre of the pitch, Tomas Rosicky, Tomas Galasek and Karel Poborsky, all looked exceptionally comfortable as they pushed the ball around in search of a weakness in their opposition's defence.

They still found one hard to come by. Rehhagel, with plenty of time to weigh up his strategy before this game, reshuffled his defensive line once again, using Dellas as a sweeper between Georgios Seitaridis and Mihalis Kapsis to man mark Koller and Milan Baros respectively.

The decision paid off, particularly during the opening 30 minutes when the Czechs were probably at their most fluent, but Koller was limited to a few flicks or knock downs for those around him and Baros barely made any impression on the game.

The Greeks, meanwhile, retained possession well for the bulk of the game except when trying to get the ball to their forwards who, for the most part, made little headway against a defence built around the highly effective partnership of Rene Bolf and Tomas Ujfalusi. Angelos Charisteas, playing behind and to the right of Zisis Vryzas did pose occasional problems with runs from deep positions but the tackling of Ujfalusi, in particular, was excellent. The result was that even during their best spell of the 90 minutes, the middle 20 of the second half, Cech got by without having to make a save of note.

When that period finally passed the Czechs started to give Nikopolidis a bit more to worry about with both Koller and Baros going close to opening the scoring as the game crept into the last 10 minutes of ordinary time. The pair also combined in an unfortunate way with the giant striker heading a Poborsky corner goalwards from just beyond the far post only to see the ball deflect wide off the back of his team-mate.

By now Rosicky's contribution to the Czech cause was of critical importance and moments before Koller fired inches to the left of the post, the Borussia Dortmund midfielder might well have had a shot himself. Gaps were now appearing in the Greek defence but the time for a breakthrough ran out and the game moved into extra time with Karel Bruckner's men surely realising that by passing up so many chances they were living dangerously. Just how dangerously was about to become apparent.