german juggernaut chugs into another final published: saturday 4 october 2003, 11.10cet
greece held their own and slowed the west germany juggernaut, but jupp derwall's team had still done enough to reach a third straight final.
devastating in their previous outing against the netherlands, it was a far more subdued west germany which drew 0-0 with greece to rubber-stamp their place in a third successive uefa european championship final.
bernd schuster was the 1976 runners-up's creator in chief against the dutch but missed out against greece. his team were notably blunter in his absence, though their opponents fielded a much-changed side themselves. quietly impressive despite losing their opening two fixtures, greece could so easily have crowned their campaign off with two points rather than one.
though hristos ardizoglu came closest when he hit a post with a spectacular swerving shot 20 minutes from time, there had been earlier opportunities as well. konstantinos kouis, dimitris nikoloudis and ilias galakos, all presented with chances as a result of lax marking, all failed to capitalise.
jupp derwall's charges had openings of their own, horst hrubesch and karl-heinz rummenigge heading wide, but were unable to hit top gear. though the west german juggernaut had been slowed, it chugged on and into the showpiece once again.
