Karagounis accepts Greek title loss

Exit
The 1-0 loss in Salzburg means that Greece will finish bottom of their section regardless of the result when they conclude their campaign against Spain on Wednesday. But midfielder Karagounis – who opened the UEFA EURO 2004™ scoring in the opening game against Portugal, but missed his country's final triumph through suspension – sounded an upbeat note when saying that the significance of merely being in Austria and Switzerland was not to be understated.

Fans thanked
"The next thing is the match on Wednesday," the 31-year-old Panathinaikos FC player said. "We will keep on trying and do everything possible to get a positive result. We managed to feature for the second time in a EURO tournament, this celebration of football. It is very important that we are here. Last time we became European champions, now we are present in the event. And this is what matters, to feature in such tournaments, to give 100 per cent. It is true we didn't make it. However, we will continue our efforts. This is football, this is sport. We would like to thank our fans for staying with us until the end."

Luck lacking
It was a tight encounter against Russia, decided by Konstantin Zyryanov's 33rd-minute goal. Karagounis, who won his 75th cap in the game, bemoaned Greece's luck afterwards when he said: "We fell behind at an unfortunate moment for us, when there was no sign of a goal. In such matches, in such tournaments, luck must also be on your side. This unfortunately was not the case. In the second half, the game was really open for both teams. We tried to turn the game around, but we had no luck on certain occasions and thus we failed to achieve a positive result."