The Greeks scored just before the hour mark courtesy of a goal from Werder Bremen forward Angelos Charisteas who was on hand to head home a corner kick by Angelos Basinas. This proved to be quite a shock for the majority of red shirts in the Estadio de Luz who had expected the home nation to win comfortably but Greece managed by the German coach Otto Rehhagel sent his side out with other ideas, obviously no one had predicted the script.
Giannakopoulos was to last three quarters of the game playing in a left sided midfield role before being replaced by his former Olympiakos team mate Stylianos Venetidis, who was brought on to shore up the defence after Portugal had brought on the evergreen veteran Rui Costa.
It marks a fairytale ending for the Bolton man who only five months before had suffered the agony of cup final defeat as the Wanderers lost out 2-1 to Middlesbrough in the Carling Cup Final in February.
Congratulations go to Stelios on this fine acheivement and of course to the rest of the Greek team for entertaining us and teaching us that the role of the underdog still has a part to play in today's game.
Speaking to the BBC afterwards the player dedicated his winners medal to his club and the Greek fans who had supported the team so well during their European adventure.
“I’m a representative of Bolton Wanderers, and I’d like to dedicate one piece of the cup to them and the rest to the Greek fans who’ve followed us here and all over the planet.”
“It’s a great day for Greek football and a great day for us. It was the biggest day of our careers and I think we deserved it. We’ve had a brilliant tournament from the beginning until the end.”