Organized, efficient, fit, boring. I admire the fact that the Greeks imposed themselves on the tournament by simply sticking to their game plan and performing to their utmost for every minute of every game. Watching the awful dross was something else altogether, mind. A horrid end to an underwhelming tournament. What would have happened if Rooney hadn’t got injured?
‘When the subject is Portugal and its people, one thing always mentioned as a definitive national characteristic is melancholy. One can only imagine the sense of yearning this morning. It will be profound, a mixture of embarrassment, shame and a huge feeling of emptiness. It will be all the more painful because the hosts had invested so much in Euro 2004. So much hope, so much money, so much effort. Goodbye to all that. Portugal’s primary memory will be of loss. The image that will be carried forward will not be of Luis Figo finally fulfilling the nation, but of Eusebio weeping in the centre circle.’
Michael Walker, The Guardian, Monday 5th July, 2004
