Divine inspiration and a good mental stopwatch were crucial in Greece's Euro 2004 semi-final victory over the Czech Republic, goalscorer Traianos Dellas said on Thursday.

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"I realised when we were given the corner that exactly 14 minutes 36 seconds of extra-time had been played," said Dellas, whose headed silver goal in the dying seconds of the first half of extra-time sealed a 1-0 victory.

"I said to myself that now we must do it."

Looking to the heavens, he added: "Someone heard me and after that I scored.

"I thank from the bottom of my heart the Greek fans who were here and those back home. I think we have done something historical."

For midfielder Stelios Giannakopoulos, the unlikely Greece win that takes them through to play hosts Portugal in the final on Sunday was a dream.

"That's the beauty of football," said Giannakopoulos. "It was a very good, a brilliant day for us and a bleak day for the Czechs.

"We live in a dream, it's wonderful, and we don't want to wake up."

Giannakopoulos said the squad's big problem would be to recover in time for the final.

"We have only two days to rest," the midfielder said. "It will be hard to get everybody read. It's too fast."