Greece 1 France 0: In England this might be seen by many as therapeutic. Just a day after Sven-Goran Eriksson's men fell at the hands of host team Portugal, registered nobodies Greece bundled out the team which beat England so cruelly on the opening weekend

For the French, though, it is a nightmare. The most formidable of the big cats that prowled the international stage four years ago, they are now no more than tournament road kill, also-rans on their way home for a painfully extended port mortem.

Pity the teams - like Ireland - who will meet them for qualifying games in the autumn when, with a new coach, a few new faces and, one presumes, a recharged sense of resolve, they seek to start rebuilding their shattered international reputation.

Last night's elimination from the championship they won in such thrilling fashion in 2000 was a surprise, but, given the rather unconvincing nature of their displays against Croatia and even Switzerland last week, not a huge one.

All the flaws were there to see against the Greeks, who looked comfortable throughout and effortlessly exploited the poor defending that has dogged Jacques Santini's side since they arrived in Portugal. The Greeks grabbed the winner courtesy of Angelos Haristeas 20 minutes into the second period.

Nor did Otto Rehhagel's men ever have to withstand anything more than the most gentle breeze from a French attack long considered football's equivalent of a tornado, capable as it was of completely sweeping unsuspecting defences away.

The Greeks, having beaten the Portuguese in the opening game and taken two points from the Spaniards that ultimately cost Inaki Saez's side their pride and the coach his job, were again putting the bigger names to shame with another display of discipline and determination.

Wary, perhaps, of being sucked into their opposition's favoured counterattacking game, the French started slowly, so slowly in fact the Greeks had marginally the better of the opening period.

While Santini's men played a patient game, building from the back in a measured way and looking to exploit any openings in the well organised Greek defence, their opponents sought to get forward at a little more pace.

Konstantinos Katsouranis directed things from just in front of the back four, and sometimes took responsibility for picking up Zinedine Zidane or either one of the French strikers.

Up front, Haristeas provided something for the midfield to aim long passes at, and had he or his team-mates' finishing been better then they might have grabbed the lead before the break.

At that stage, however, their best couple of shooting chances produced nothing more than rushed strikes directed at the French goalkeeper.

Fabien Barthez did almost provide them with a more clear-cut chance 20 minutes in when, as Mikael Silvestre walked away from the French area his former Manchester United team-mate chose to roll the ball in his direction. Themistoklis Nikolaidis, though, spotted the danger a moment too late and narrowly failed to steal in for what would have been a one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

A few minutes earlier the Greeks had gone much closer to making a breakthrough when Georgios Karagounis' curling free from the left slipped past a couple of defenders and reached Katsouranis, whose side-footed shot from no more than a couple of yards was palmed onto the inside of the post by Barthez. A lively claim for a goal followed from the Greeks, but neither the referee nor his assistant looked interested.

They were all half-chances, but the Greeks could have done with taking one, for at that stage it seemed that the French could only improve.

To some extent they did, and through the opening stages of the second half appeared finally to be taking some sort of grip on the game: Henry went close on a couple of occasions from just outside the area, while William Gallas, Robert Pires and Zidane all made useful runs into the Greek area and their defence had to clear under pressure.

The German coach's reaction to this slight but distinct shift in the pattern of the game was to replace Nikolaidis, a striker, with Vasilios Lakis, a midfielder, which had the immediate effect of plugging some of the gaps in the centre of the field but looked certain to leave Haristeas isolated up front.

Within three minutes, however, the Greeks were in front thanks to a goal that resembled Helder Postiga's on Thursday night for the quality of Theodoros Zagorakis' cross from out wide, the complete absence of any marking in the centre and the crisp clinical way in which Haristeas directed the ball towards his chosen spot.

Shaken by the setback, the French tried to play their way back into the game but it was difficult at times to tell whether their apparent coolness was in fact an absence of the required urgency. Santini changed things around and threw on fresh attacking players in the hope of generating a breakthrough, but this time there were no last-minute gifts from the opposition, just relentlessly solid defending from a Greek side that knew how to keep a clean sheet under pressure.

Henry had his side's best chance to equalise with a header three minutes from time but, under little or no pressure, badly missed the target. Bizente Lizarazu and Louis Saha also went close, but there wasn't another great escape left in the French.