Hilarious (not to mention utterly misinformed) these comparison between this Portugal side and the Greek side of '04.
One was a side:
- Made up of almost entirely domestic players from a far "lesser" league
- Made up of players, 90% of whom you'd have never heard of had they not won it
- Made up of players who were worth less combined at the time than William Carvalho is worth now in the market
- That defeated the host nation (twice) as well as the previous tourney's winners
- That never needed penalties to decide a match
- That never failed to score in a match
- That scored as many goals in the group stages as anybody else did in their group
- That finished above Spain, eliminating them in the group stages
- That defeated a star studded Portuguese team not once but twice on their home soil, a Portuguese team that would have run over this year's Portugal
- That defeated an incredible French side made up of Zidane, Henry, Pires, Makelele, Viera, Desailly etc... that would have demolished this version of France
- That defeated the hottest team in the tournament led by the tourney's two best strikers in Koller and Baros who had previously torn through Germany, Holland and Denmark scoring at will
- That would have finished last in their group had they "stormed forward" like the HF crowd would have loved for them to in their infinite wisdom
Ridiculous comparisons given what Portugal is able to put on the field in terms of quality and what Greece was able to put out there back then.
All that being said, Portugal are deserved winners.
Seven teams had the chance to beat them and failed.
That's as deserving as it gets.
Incredibly happy for Santos whom some Greek NT supporters deemed not fit to manage us any longer.
And given the recent successes of former Greek NT managers, I fully expect Skibbe to lift the World Cup trophy having replaced Low in two years' time.
Side note: If any club wants to spend the asking price of 35 million Pounds for Sissoko, please do so quickly before thinking about it too long.