It was not pretty, it may not be popular but it was certainly effective. Greece beat the Czech Republic in the second Euro 2004 semi-final on Thursday 1-0 via a silver goal, hustling and scrapping their way into the final against Portugal. It was a victory that owed much to the virtues instilled in the Greeks by their German coach Otto Rehhagel, who is far more likely to lose sleep from the sound of crashing plates than out of concern for the aesthetics of his team’s performance. The Czechs are certainly, on many levels, a better football team than Greece, as are Portugal who lost to Rehhagel’s side in the tournament’s opening match. Spain and Russia, who finished below Greece in their group, and holders France who lost to them in the quarter-final would all justifiably claim to have better players. There are reasons, though, why a country who have never previously managed to win a game at a major tournament are now in with a chance of becoming European champions. Rehhagel has done what the coaches of every small team in major tournaments dream of, getting the very best and then something more out of a squad of hard-working and good, but not gifted, players. He has fired them with the traditional German qualities of determination, intense concentration and huge self-belief, which have carried the Greeks to a level no-one would have predicted. But this triumph, cruel as it was on a talented Czech side, was about much more than the necessary qualities of work-rate, team-spirit and impressive physical fitness. Rehhagel triumphed on a tactical level by snuffing out the Czech attack using a tried and tested approach that appeared to have long since gone out of fashion. Tight man-to-man marking, with a sweeper as extra security, ensured that a Czech forward line that had put three goals past both the Netherlands and Denmark was left goalless, frustrated and ultimately distraught. Yourkas Seitaridis kept close to Milan Baros, the tournament’s top scorer who had found the target in all four previous matches, and Michalis Kapsis made life difficult for the towering Jan Koller. On most occasions when Baros broke free of his marker or Koller provided a knock-down to one of the arriving midfielders then the sweeper Dellas was there to eliminate the threat. The only spell when the Greek defence was really exposed was the opening few minutes when Tomas Rosicky struck the bar with a 20-metre volley and then Marek Jankulovski, the outstanding Czech left-back, blasted a shot at Greece keeper Antonis Nikopolidis. Once they had survived that early pressure, the Greek midfielders set about their task with Theodoros Zagorakis and Giorgos Karagounis particularly relentless in their constant harrying. Karagounis will be missed in the final after picking up his second yellow card. They were helped by the Czechs losing their captain and main creative force Pavel Nedved to injury just before the break, with his replacement Vladimir Smicer unable to provide the inspiration for which Nedved is noted. The Czechs nonetheless stuck to their principles of playing positive, attractive football and Koller went close in the 80th minute after a great link-up with Rosicky. In extra-time, though, Stelios Giannakopoulos, who had come on in the 72nd minute, gave extra attacking edge to Rehhagel’s side but was a still a shock when from a Vassilis Tsartas corner defender Traianos Dellas headed in a goal which the Czechs did not have time to recover from. That was a cruel end to Czech dreams but Rehhagel is not in the business of winning popularity contests, and he could yet make himself very unpopular with the host nation for the second time in three weeks on Sunday. (Reuters)
