Angelos Charisteas on Greece's shock triumph at EURO 2004

When Greece beat hosts Portugal 2-0 in the opening game of UEFA EURO 2004, it seemed like a minor miracle, given how little was expected of Otto Rehhagel's stubborn but steely side.

However, having scraped through the group stage, Greece went on to work wonders, eliminating holders France before accounting for Czechia after extra time in the semi-finals. Portugal were primed to get their revenge in the decider in Lisbon, but Charisteas was to seal perhaps the most remarkable victory of all.

On Greece's finals prospects

We were facing the hosts in our first match, and we had Spain in our group; nobody expected – us included – that we would make it past the first round.

We won the first game, and we did so in style. We played good football and scored two beautiful goals. It was at that point that the Greeks [started believing]. We proved that we were serious [contenders], that we went there to achieve something, and we weren't just there for a holiday.

[Coach] Otto Rehhagel, was one of the most important factors to our success. Otto managed to get 100% out of each one of us. Our system was 'economic attack', meaning we always wanted to focus on our defence and, when given the opportunity, hit back at our rivals.

On when Greece started to believe

Back home, everybody was saying that we had achieved our goal by getting out of the group stage at the EURO. [Then] we played against the best football team in the world at the time. [France] had players like Zinédine Zidane and Thierry Henry in their ranks.

Our best game in the EURO [2004] was against France. We faced the best team in the tournament, and we proved that, by beating France, we had our sights on the final.

On the final

We knew that winning our first game against the Portuguese was an unexpected shock for Portugal and for the whole country. We were counting on the fact that as the time passed and the score stayed at 0-0, the [Portuguese] players on the pitch and the whole country would start feeling anxious, would start seeing flashbacks to the first game they played against us. As the time passed, we saw Portugal's nerves and that's when we struck.

Giourkas Seitaridis won a corner on the right. When we went up into the box to take our positions and we were all thinking the same thing: that it was our chance. Here, I have to share something really personal. From the age of eight I had dreamt of scoring an important goal for my national team, to make my parents and my country proud. Even today, I get emotional when I think about it. My childhood dream had come true. I will never forget this moment.

On the full-time celebrations

We couldn't comprehend what we had just done, what we had achieved. We fell to the ground and cried with joy. We saw fans in the stands shouting and crying with joy and pride.

The party went on for a long time, for many days. When we arrived in Athens, we took a bus and the journey lasted five or six hours: millions of people in the streets, Greeks with joy in the eyes. It was the best thing a football player can ever experience and I'm happy that I managed to be a part of that.