Fairy tale continues, says Greece coach

Greece's German coach Otto Rehhagel hailed the 1-0 silver goal victory over Czech Republic in Thursday's Euro 2004 semi-final as a miracle.

"The fairy tale continues; it's unbelievable what they did," he said. "It's a true miracle. The Czechs were technically better but the passion and the will was on our side.

"We had nothing to lose, we could risk everything. We could play for all or nothing.

"We worked hard for this for three years, step by step. The team has won tremendous confidence. We've made some fortunate decisions and they've worked out."

Greece, 80-1 outsiders to win the title before the tournament, play hosts Portugal in Sunday's final. They had not won a match at a major tournament before coming to Portugal.

"Now we'll have the fairytale final," said Rehhagel.

"We beat the Portugese in the first match and they managed to stay in the tournament and now it's the dream final against us, a chance to get revenge for the first match.

"We're the underdogs, but we have nothing to lose."

Asked if Greece could beat the hosts he said: "In football everything is possible, we don't have anything to lose.

"We're the winners of this tournament."

Greece's goalscorer Traianos Dellas, who netted just before the break in extra time, thanked God for victory.

"Today we did an unrepeatable thing. We deserve to be in the final, we proved we have an organised and good team. At the end God gave us the win."

Midfielder Stelios Giannakopoulos said the team was living a dream. "That's the beauty of football," said Giannakopoulos after the Czechs dominated the game.

"It was a very good, a brilliant day for us and a black day for the Czechs. We live in a dream, it's wonderful, and we don't want to wake up."