A fleet of up to 60 planes will be chartered to carry the fans to Lisbon, said the chief of Greece's travel agents' union HATTA, Yiannis Evangelou. They will join as many as 10,000 Greek supporters already in Portugal.

Karamanlis will depart for Portugal on Saturday, said Christos Valtadoros, press aide to the prime minister's office.

And after facing a barrage of criticism for the state of Athens preparations to host the Olympics next month, Games organisers said here Friday that the football team's unexpected success had boosted their confidence.

"The players and the coach served as the best ambassadors of the cause of the Olympics," chief Games organiser Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki said in a statement.

"Greece is smashing the views of those who said that it can't make it... Little Greece can succeed in the Olympics," she told private radio station Flash.

Hundreds of thousands of Greeks ecstatically celebrated throughout the nation after the 1-0 victory over the Czech Republic in extra time of Thursday's semi-final.

The nationwide party is considered to be the biggest sporting celebration in Greece's history.

The game's extra-time period, in which the Greeks clinched victory with a last-minute 'silver goal' by defender Traianos Dellas, hit a record 84.6 percent television viewer rating, rating agency AGB Hellas said Friday.

Even Greece's conservative Orthodox Church joined in the celebrations. "We're near the absolute summit... I thank God who blessed us to achieve that universal victory and pray for the conquest of the cup," said Greek church leader Archbishop Christodoulos in a statement.