Sometimes football dreams do come true

Euro 2004 Final: This was the night when "Hellas-mania" eclipsed "Portugal-mania". As the blue and white tinsel glittered, the fireworks went off and the Greek players hugged one another in almost disbelieving delight, even the most churlish could not but concede that sometimes, even in tired old football, dreams do come true.

Greece might not have set the world on fire with the quality of their precentage football - although they gave arguably their best performance of the tournament last night - but they certainly made a lot Greek souls very happy last night.

Sometimes, a victory is in the air and the happy, noisy chanting of the Greek fans from start to finish last night had already boded ill for the home side.

"Now Is The Hour, Portugal" went the front page headlines on yesterday's edition of Portuguese sports paper, Record. Now indeed was the hour, except that it was the longest hour or so in sporting history and, worse still, it was not to be Portugal's. UEFA designated man of the match, Greek captain Theo Zagorakis summed up the tremendous emotion of a special night when saying: "I have no words to decribe what I'm feeling right now.

"This is the greatest team that God ever gave us, so it was a great achievement what we did here in Portugal. I have no words, you can just imagine what is going on in the dressing room, the joy.

"We dedicate this cup to Greeks all over the world, we've given them something more than joy tonight, we've given them great pride."

Winning coach, German Otto Rehhagel was rather more prosaic, beaming at reporters: "The score speaks for itself. Football is amazing, it has managed to unite all Greeks all over the world, something that politics cannot do. I would like to thank the team, the players, everyone involved. It's not easy for us all to be together but you can see the result for yourselves."

Indeed we could, as could also Portugal's defeated and understandably deflated coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who sportingly commented: "Greece is a good team, they have a good defence, they have made very few mistakes in the tournament. I want to congratulate my colleague Otto Rehhagel on his work.

"But I also want to tell the Portuguese people that this is not the end for us, we are the European vice-champions. The story does not end here."

As the microphones failed and agitated hacks began to shout up at the podium, "Big Phil", for a second, betrayed the tension and disappointment of the evening, scolding the reporters: "Please gentlemen, some respect, we finish our game, we lost and you think we are here joking."

Scolari refused to criticise his players, saying: "Greece have played like that since the beginning of the tournament, they're good at it. They got their first corner in the match and they scored from it. It was up to us to find a way through their defence but Portugal were well stopped tonight. You have to admire the quality of the Greek defenders and the good job they did."

As he prepared to walk away from his final Euro 2004 news conference, Scolari issued a defiant promise: "Thank you everyone, we'll all meet again at the next World Cup."

You had to admire the quality of the Greek fans. By four o'clock on Sunday morning, nearly 16 hours before the game, they were already making themselves heard and felt in the Bario Alto in downtown Lisbon. The bars, restaurants and streets of central Lisbon were crammed with good natured, early morning Greek revellers who gave all the impression of being ready to head to the stadium there and then.

What was eminently predictable on this day of days for Portuguese sport was that the hosts' team bus would have difficulty making to the ground, such was the swelling crowd of well-wishers who gathered around it at various moments on its journey to the stadium from Alcochete, outside town.

As the bus came over the Vasco da Gama bridge, it was given a wildly enthusiastic escort by land and by sea, with an army of easy riders motoring behind it and a fleet of motor boats sailing alongside, all of them blasting away at their horns in a noisy cacophony that will for evermore be called "Portugal-mania". Little did they know, however, that "Hellas-mania" was about to take over.