GREECE'S Stelios Giannakopoulos admitted yesterday that never in his wildest dreams did he believe he would be the proud owner of a Euro 2004 winners' medal. Giannakopoulos played in Sunday night's Euro 2004 final win over hosts Portugal at the Estadio da Luz when a second-half goal from Angelos Charisteas saw the Greeks complete a fairy-tale that scarcely seemed possible at the start of the tournament. The Greeks arrived in Portugal in the unenviable position of having never won a match in a major tournament and were cast in the role as cannon fodder with only big-stage debutants Latvia having an inferior record in competition of the 16 finalists. The football world has been amazed at the odyssey of the Greeks but Giannakopoulos himself admitted that he had never anticipated winning what - in TV ratings terms - is the third biggest sports event on the planet after the Olympics and the World Cup. The Bolton said: "I feel great, really great and for us this is a dream become reality. "We were untouchable - we deserve this, the players, the coach (Otto Rehhagel), the supporters and the Greek people all over the world." Giannakopoulos admitted when he and his team-mates arrived in Portugal that thoughts of lifting the Henri Delaunay Trophy did not enter his head. "To be honest I did not think we could win the cup," said the Reebok Stadium star. "We came here hoping to play some nice foot-ball, to enjoy ourselves and to give a good account of ourselves. "We saw no reason to believe we could win but slowly we started to gain confidence and we took every game as it came." The Greeks won the opening match of the tournament when they beat Portugal 2-1 in Porto but then struggled in the rest of the Group A phase. First they drew 1-1 with Spain before losing 2-1 to Russia - had Zisis Vryzas not scored a "consolation" goal the Greeks would have been eliminated. Then as the tournament entered its knockout stages the Greeks found their feet and a Charisteas header saw them defeat outgoing champions France in the quarter-finals before seeing off the Czech Republic 1-0 in the semis thanks to a silver goal from Traianos Dellas. In the final the Greeks played a spoiling game that neutered all the attacking ambitions of the Portuguese before Charisteas headed home a corner from Angelis Basinas. Giannakopoulos admitted that the Greeks won ugly but insisted that they had to stick to their game plan. He said: "We have to modify our game to the weapons we have at our disposition and that's what we did." | 
