Greece coach Otto Rehhagel described his side’s 1-0 silver-goal victory over the Czech Republic in last night’s Euro 2004 semi-final as a “miracle”.

“The fairytale continues, it’s unbelievable what they did,” said Rehhagel.

“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.”

Greece will meet hosts Portugal in Sunday’s final, a reprise of the opening match of the tournament, which was won 2-1 by Greece.

“The team has won tremendous confidence. We’ve made some fortunate decisions and they’ve worked out.

“I believe we played very intelligently in freezing out the Czech Republic,” he said.

“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 for them to get revenge for the first match.

“We’re the underdogs but we have nothing to lose.

“In football everything is possible, we don’t have anything to lose.
“Portugal are very strong. We beat them in the opening match but a lot has changed since then and the final will be competely different. They’re stronger now, but they’ll find out that we are too,” he added.