© EuroFootball.com
The prolonged Greek football fairy tale in the Old Continent championships in Poland and Ukraine ended on Friday - in the quarterfinals of Euro 2004 held in Gdansk, one of the tournament favorites - the German national team, was eliminated from further trophy contention.
AFP photo.
Coach Joachim Loew changed the entire German attacking trio (replacing Thomas Muller, Lukas Podolski, and Mario Gomez with Marco Reus, Andre Schurrle, and Miroslav Klose), but that didn't stop the runners-up of the previous European championship from smoothly finding the opponents' goal.
However, despite their success and, as always, solid defense, Fernando Santos' pupils managed to keep their goal dry almost until the end of the first half.
Watching the match live, Angela Merkel's joy, team captain Philipp Lahm, struck with a shot from outside the penalty area in the 39th minute, defeated the goalkeeper Michal Sifa - 1-0.
Fans who love attacking football had to hold their heads when after the break, one of the rare occasions when the Greeks entered the German half, Jerome Boateng's mistake in defense allowed Georgios Samaras to equalize the score.
Probably many shivered with fear: Greece stretched the game to penalty shootouts, which they, of course, won, and then they only had two matches left, after which Giorgos Karagounis would once again raise the winners' trophy high above his head.
For this scenario, a resolute "no" was pronounced by the angry Sami Khedira, Klose, and Reus, each "sinking" three shots in a row into the "broken Greek bus."
At the end of the meeting, referee Damir Skomina awarded a penalty kick from the 11-meter mark for Boateng's accidental handball in the penalty area, which was converted by Dimitrios Salpingidis.
This last goal was particularly important for the Greeks, as they managed to match their scoring record in a single match in the history of the European Championships.
Germany will face the winner of the England-Italy pair in the Euro 2012 semifinals, which will be determined on Sunday evening.
Germany 4 - 2 Greece 39' [1 - 0] P. Lahm 55' [1 - 1] G. Samaras 61' [2 - 1] S. Khedira 68' [3 - 1] M. Klose 74' [4 - 1] M. Reus 89' [4 - 2] D. Salpingidis (from penalty kick)
Key moments:
Detailed analysis:
