Greece spoil Portugal's party

Greece got the European Football Championship off to a stunning start on Saturday when they recorded the greatest win in their history by upsetting host nation Portugal 2-1 in the tournament's opening game.

Also Read Euro 2004 - Complete coverage

The Group A outsiders, looking composed on the ball and determined in attack, led through Giorgos Karagounis's seventh-minute shot and doubled the advantage with an Angelos Basinas penalty six minutes into the second half.

They then held out until injury time when Cristiano Ronaldo got a consolation goal with a close range header from a Luis Figo corner.

After the excitement of Porto's Champions League success last month and the anticipation of hosting their first major tournament it was a huge anti-climax for most of the 50,000 crowd.

Greece, who qualified ahead of Spain and drew with Portugal in a November friendly, showed they would not be overawed as they cut through in the first minute, striker Angelos Haristeas miskicking in front of goal after a low cross by Zisis Vryzas.

ENCOURAGING START

It was an encouraging start for a team who failed to score in their three group games during their last appearance in a major tournament, the World Cup in the United States 10 years ago.

It got better five minutes later as midfielder Karagounis pounced on a misplaced pass out of defence by Paulo Ferreira. With the defenders retreating, he took the ball forward and drove a low shot past goalkeeper Ricardo from the edge of the area.

Greece had more chances as Haristeas shot wide and overlapping fullback Takis Fyssas arrived in the box to send a volley over the bar.

Portugal eventually settled, with Figo, Rui Costa and Simao Sabrosa beginning to show some nice touches in midfield. But their chances were limited, Costa heading the best of them wide from the near penalty spot after 25 minutes.

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari introduced Cristiano Ronaldo to add some invention in the second half but the winger's first contribution was to bring down Yourkas Seitaridis as he drove into the penalty area.

Italian referee Pierluigi Collina pointed to the spot and midfielder Angelos Basinas duly sent Ricardo the wrong way with a crisply-struck penalty.

Despite having almost 40 minutes to try to get back into the game, Portugal appeared bereft of ideas and failed to test Greek keeper Antonis Nikopolidis until the 86th minute when he made his first real save of the match from a Nuno Gomes effort.

The second Group A game between Spain and Russia takes place in Faro later on Saturday and Greece's victory has already made pre-tournament predictions of how it will turn out irrelevant.

 Teams:

Portugal (4-4-2): 1-Ricardo; 2-Paulo Ferreira, 4-Jorge Andrade, 5-Fernando Couto (captain), 3-Rui Jorge; 6-Costinha (21-Nuno Gomes 66), 18-Maniche, 7-Luis Figo, 10-Rui Costa (20-Deco 46); 9-Pauleta, 11-Simao Sabrosa (17-Cristiano Ronaldo 46).

Greece (4-4-2): 1-Antonis Nikopolidis; 14-Takis Fyssas, 5-Traianos Dellas, 19-Michalis Kapsis, 2-Yourkas Seitaridis; 20-Giorgos Karagounis (21-Costas Katsouranis 46), 6-Angelos Basinas, 7-Theodoros Zagorakis (captain), 8-Stelios Giannakopoulos (11-Demis Nikolaidis 68); 9-Angelos Haristeas (23-Vassilis Lakis 74), 15-Zisis Vryzas

Referee: Pierluigi Collina (Italy)

Linesmen: Marco Ivaldi (Italy), Narciso Pisacreta (Italy)