2004 European Football Championship
| Campeonato da Europa de Futebol 2004 (Portuguese) | |
|---|---|
Official logo
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| Tournament details | |
| Host country | Portugal |
| Dates | 12 June – 4 July |
| Teams | 16 |
| Venue(s) | 10 (in 8 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 Greece (1st title)
|
| Runners-up |  Portugal |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 31 |
| Goals scored | 77 (2.48 per match) |
| Attendance | 1,156,473 (37,306 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
 Milan Baroš (5 goals) |
| Best player |
Theodoros Zagorakis
|
The 2004 UEFA European Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2004 or simply Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The final tournament was hosted for the first time in Portugal, from 12 June to 4 July 2004, after their bid was selected on 12 October 1999, over those of Spain and Austria/Hungary. A total of thirty-one matches were played in ten venues across eight cities – Aveiro, Braga, Coimbra, Guimarães, Faro/Loulé, Leiria, Lisbon and Porto.
As in the 1996 and 2000 editions, the final tournament was contested by 16 teams – the hosts plus the 15 teams that successfully overcame the qualification round, which began in September 2002. Latvia secured their first participation in a major tournament after overcoming Turkey in the play-offs, while Greece returned to the European Championship after 24 years.
The tournament was rich in surprises and upsets: Germany, Spain and Italy were eliminated in the group stage, while France, the defending champions, were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Greece. The Portuguese team recovered from an opening defeat against Greece to reach the final, eliminating England and the Netherlands along the way. For the first time in a major football tournament, the last match featured the same teams as the opening match. Portugal was defeated by Greece with a goal from Angelos Charisteas. Greece's triumph was unexpected, considering that they had only qualified for two other major tournaments, the UEFA Euro 1980 and the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where they failed to win a single match.
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