How Greece actually won EURO 2004

EURO 2004, the Aliens to EURO 2000’s Alien.

EURO 2000, much like 1979 picture Alien, remains at the forefront of its genre. Whilst Ridley Scott directed a horror masterpiece, several countries converged on the 4-2-3-1 in Belgium and the Netherlands to direct a masterful international football tournament.

Then its successor came along. More garish, more brutish, and shaped entirely differently. Whilst retaining its horror elements, James Cameron’s 1986 stab at the Alien franchise, with Aliens, plays as more of a war movie. Comparatively, football was an altogether different beast when 16 countries converged on Portugal for EURO 2004.

Football was coming to terms with the successes of pragmatists Jose Mourinho and Rafael Benitez, who hoarded the European silverware with a more defensive brand of football.

Just as Porto and Valencia nullified the best club teams Europe had to offer, so there was a force skulking around in the shadows of the international game ready to tear the elitist fabric of football.

It wasn’t the dazzling Czechs, the imperious Dutch, the reigning champions France and it certainly wasn’t the vastly underachieving Germany, Italy, Spain or the golden generation of England that won EURO 2004.

It wasn’t the hosts, either.

No, much like the queen xenomorph rocking up on the spaceship at the end of Aliens, there was a sting at the end. Unlike Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, however, Portugal was unable to tell their happy Hollywood ending.

But with Otto Rehhagel’s Greece, EURO 2004 got the correct ending to a different tournament.

00:00 – Introduction
01:55 – Context
07:25 – Otto Rehhagel
11:35 – The Road to EURO 2004
23:55 – EURO 2004
43:50 – Legacy


Voice: Jake Doyle
Words: Jake Doyle
Edit: Jake Doyle

What If Football is a form of footballing storytelling that takes the audience down a different path to our current reality.

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