Millions of Greeks celebrate a dream come true

A Greek fan poses at the Stadio Da Luz in Lisbon prior to the Euro 2004 final match between Portugal and Greece at the European Nations championship.

Only seconds after the final whistle at Euro 2004, flares detonated, church bells rang and car honks reverberated on the streets of Athens in a prelude to the biggest party the country has ever seen.

"We got it! It's such a huge success. We saw victory coming, we believed in it," said Nikos Kavallineas, one of millions of Greeks who watched on TV as the national football team won a totally unexpected European Championship by beating Portugal 1-0 in Lisbon.

Greeks were glued to screens in their homes, pubs, public squares and beaches throughout the nation.

Street celebrations in Athens began the moment team captain Theodoros Zagorakis lifted the cup, capping an extraordinary performance at Euro 2004 in which the 150-1 outsiders eliminated defending champions France and beat hosts Portugal twice.

"Greece is the best, now let us play Brazil," screamed a group of young, Greek supporters draped in blue-white Greek flag as they ran down a road in the capital.

A Greek fan wearing an antique Greek helmet waits at the International Athens Airport for a flight to Lisbon. Thousands of Greek fans left Athens airport to support their national football team in the Euro 2004.

Omonoia square in central Athens immediately filled with people and cars circling it, honking wildly. Ecstatic fans popped the corks on champagne bottles, groups of people danced on the backs of motorbikes or shook the cars. Others bowed before huge Greek flags placed on the ground, chanting: "The German is crazy," in reference to the team's eccentric German coach Otto Rehhagel who turned the no-hopers into champions.

Similar scenes of ecstasy unfolded in other cities throughout the nation.

In the northern port city of Salonika, boats were circling in the harbour full speed ahead with all their lights on. In the western city of Patra, also known as Greece's Rio de Janeiro, a carnival in white and blue broke out at the end of the match.

"It's utter chaos here," said Costas Kokkaras, a teacher in Veroia, a northern Greek city. "It's impossible to say how many people are out on the street," he told AFP.

"Foreign tourists are just standing by with their mouths opened, they can't believe the degree of enthusiasm they are seeing," said Zissis Antonopoulos, a doctor on the remote island of Zakynthos.

A Greek fan poses at the Luz stadium in Lisbon prior to the Euro 2004 final match between Portugal and Greece at the European Nations football championship.

A tense silence had fallen over the nation until Angelos Charisteas' header in the 57th minute gave Greece its first major football title, and its biggest sporting success ever just 40 days before the Athens Olympics are due to start.

"It was obvious the Portuguese wouldn't score. So it was just a matter of time before we won it," Kokkaras said.

But more than an unprecedented sporting success, Greeks saw in their victory a symbolic ascendancy for their country, a mid-ranking member of the European Union.

"It's huge advertising abroad in the runup to the Olympic Games," Kavallineas said in Athens. "Greeks can enjoy the fact that they can look other Europeans eye-to-eye, without an inferiority complex," the 44-year old accountant added.