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Greece National Football Team

Head coach: Otto Rehhagel
Captain: Angelos Basinas
Top scorer: Nikos Anastopoulos
FIFA ranking: 15

The Greece national football team is the national football team of Greece and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation. They are the reigning European Champions.

Greece's first appearance in a major tournament was Euro 1980, but their first win did not come until the first match of Euro 2004, a 2-1 win over the hosts Portugal. Greece went on to win the tournament, stunning defending champions France in the quarterfinals and the heavily favored Czech Republic in the semifinals before beating Portugal for a second time, 1-0, in the final. Bookmakers were giving odds of about 80-1 to 150-1 for the Greeks before the tournament.

Euro 2004 triumph

Greece made it to Euro 2004 after surpassing Spain in their qualifying group. In the final tournament Greece were drawn in Group A with Spain, Portugal, and Russia. Greece was one of the lowest ranked teams in the tournament and were not expected to make an impact.

In the opening match against Portugal, Greece achieved a surprise victory by beating the hosts 2-1. After this win, the team was nicknamed "the pirate ship" by Greek sportscasters. The nickname was inspired by the opening ceremony, which was held just before the game, and involved a ship floating on the football field (a homage to Portugal's history of exploration). Greece were portrayed as the pirates who surprised the opponents and "stole" the win from their hands, a theme that would repeat itself throughout the tournament.

Four days later, Greece stunned Spain in front of a majority Spanish crowd to a 1-1 draw after being down 1-0 at half time. In the last group game, Greece went down 2-0 to Russia (who were already eliminated) but Greece managed to pull one back and thus progressed to the next round at the expense of Spain on goals scored.

In the quarterfinals Greece faced off with the reigning champions France. At 65', Greece took the lead when captain Theodoros Zagorakis flicked the ball high in the air, defeated veteran French defender Bixente Lizarazu, retained possession and then sent a perfect cross to Angelos Charisteas for the header. Greece held on to win, knocking France out of the Euro 2004 and becoming the first team ever to defeat both the hosts and defending champions in the same tournament.

Greece reached the semifinals to face the Czech Republic, who were the only team to defeat all their opponents to this point, including a convincing 3-2 win over the Netherlands, a 2-1 win over Germany, and 3-0 win over Denmark in the quarterfinals. After 90 minutes the game ended 0-0, despite Czechs having quite a few good chances that were mostly saved by the Greek goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis. In the last minute of the first half of extra time, a close range silver goal header from Traianos Dellas from a corner ended the Czech campaign, putting Greece in the final of Euro 2004.

For the first time in history (a recurring theme in this tournament), the final was a repeat of the opening game with Greece and hosts Portugal facing off in a rematch. In the 57th minute, Charisteas gave Greece the lead with a header off of a corner by Angelos Basinas. Greece held on 1-0 to win the final of Euro 2004. Captain Zagorakis was named the man of the tournament.

Greece Team
No.	NAME	POS	Height	Weight	Age
1	Antonis Nikopolidis	G	6-2	194	36
12	Kostas Chalkias	G	6-6	194	33
-	Traianos Dellas	D	6-4	210	31
-	Takis Fyssas	D	6-2	176	34
-	Nikos Spyropoulos	D	5-7	146	23
2	Giorgos Seitaridis	D	6-1	174	26
3	Christos Patsatzoglou	D	5-11	161	28
18	Giannis Goumas	D	6-0	168	32
19	Michalis Kapsis	D	5-11	176	33
24	Loukas Vyntra	D	6-0	168	26
25	Sotirios Kyrgiakos	D	6-4	194	27
32	Georgios Anatolakis	D	6-1	174	33
6	Angelos Basinas	M	5-11	168	31
8	Stelios Giannakopoulos	M	5-8	154	32
10	Giorgos Karagounis	M	5-9	163	30
15	Vassilis Torosidis	M	-	-	22
21	Kostas Katsouranis	M	6-0	179	28
30	Alexis Tziolis	M	-	-	22
-	Dimitrios Papadopoulos	S	5-10	157	25
-	Dimitrios Salpigidis	S	5-7	170	25
4	Georgios Samaras	S	6-4	190	22
9	Angelos Charisteas	S	6-3	181	27
17	Theofanis Gekas	S	5-10	168	27
20	Ioannis Amanatidis	S	5-11	176	25
33	Nikos Liberopoulos	S	6-1	174	31

Group C
	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD	P
Greece	7	6	0	1	12	5	7	18
Bosnia-Herzegovina	7	4	1	2	14	14	0	13
Turkey	6	4	1	1	16	6	10	13
Norway	7	4	1	2	17	6	11	13
Hungary	7	2	0	5	7	14	-7	6
Malta	7	1	1	5	5	15	-10	4
Moldova	7	0	2	5	4	15	-11	2