The Portuguese press reacted with a mixture of sadness and pride at the host nation's 1-0 defeat by Greece in last night's Euro 2004 final.
"Pride and sadness" was the headline of 'A Bola', although it gave the story second billing on its front page with the appointment of Italian Giovanni Trapattoni as coach to Benfica their lead story. The picture was more eloquent than the headline with Luis Figo, wearing a silver loser's medal, walking with his head down past the Henri Delaunay Trophy, adorned in the blue and white colours of the Greek team. Inside, the paper continued to contrast Portuguese despair with Greek joy with a picture of a red-eyed Cristiano Ronaldo while tickertape in blue and white floated around him with the headline: "Such a sad day."
'O Jogo' had a picture of Angelos Charisteas' winning goal with the headline: "We missed out."
The third sports paper, 'Record', was more upbeat with a picture of three tearful players, Ronaldo, Jorge Andrade and Pedro Pauleta with the headline: "Portugal is proud of you."
'Record' said: "A deserved victory for the ugly duckling. Football is like this. To win you don't always have to play beautiful football and enchant people. All you need to do is control the game and play efficiently and find the way to goal when it is possible, as happened yesterday. Sometimes the ugly duckling ends up having the last laugh and is transformed into a white swan."
Filed by Mark O'Neill-Cummins
