Theofanis Gekas grabbed a hat-trick as Greece hit five past a shell-shocked Malta in the final home match of their successful Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.

Otto Rehhagel's European Champions, who had secured their berth in Austria and Switzerland next summer thanks to a 1-0 victory over Turkey last month, turned on the style at the Olympic Stadium in a heavily one-sided encounter.

Bayer Leverkusen striker Gekas was the main beneficiary of some woeful defending from group basement boys Malta in a second half which saw Dusan Fitzel's men ship four goals, with captain Angelos Basinas also netting a superb volley and Ioannis Amanatidis also on the score sheet.

The Greeks survived an early scare when the visitors should have taken the lead with two chances in the space of a minute mid-way through the first half.

Greek keeper Antonis Nikopolidis made a great save to deny Andre Schembri and then was thankful to Christos Patsatzoglou for clearing Jamie Pace's goal bound shot off the line.

After volleying wide from his first chance in the 26th minute, Gekas broke the deadlock three minutes after the half-hour mark.

Left-back Vassilis Torosidis whipped in a great cross from the left and Gekas was on hand to slot home the rebound after Stelios Giannakopoulos' diving header was saved by Justin Haber.

Haber was then called into action three times before the end of the half, blocking an Amanatidis snapshot before a superb double save, first from Gekas and then Angelos Basinas' follow-up shot.

Rehhagel replaced Giannakopoulos for Nikolaos Liberopoulos and Torosidis with Nikolaos Spiropoulos - the Panionios youngster making his international debut - but it didn't prevent Greece from maintaining their high tempo, with a second goal coming just nine minutes after half-time.

Basinas was the man on target, latching on to Liberopoulos' pass before sending a looping volley in off the left post.

Amanatidis then added his name to the score sheet just after the hour, controlling Patsatzoglou's mis-hit shot before drilling a low right-footed shot past Haber and into the bottom right hand corner to make it 3-0

Liberopoulos smashed a shot off the crossbar a minute later but the Malta defence was breached twice in the space of two minutes as the hosts ran riot.

Gekas was in the right place once more in the 72nd minute, heading home from close range after a Liberopoulos knock-down from Amanatidis' cross.

He then completing his treble two minutes later by controlling Kostas Katsouranis' mis-hit shot before slotting the ball into the bottom right corner.

Teams:

Greece Nikopolidis, Patsatzoglou, Dellas, Kyrgiakos, Torosidis (Spyropoulos 48), Basinas, Katsouranis,Karagounis (Tziolis 70), Giannakopoulos (Liberopoulos 46),Gekas, Amanatidis.

Subs Not Used: Chalkias, Kapsis, Salpigidis, Vyntra.

Booked: Dellas.

Goals: Gekas 32, Basinas 54, Amanatidis 61, Gekas 72, 74.

Malta Haber, Josef Mifsud, Briffa, Said, Azzopardi, Pullicino, Pace, Sammut (Cohen 61), Nwoko, Schembri (Scerri 68),Michael Mifsud (Sciberras 78).

Subs Not Used: Hogg, Wellman, Scicluna, Bajada.

Booked: Nwoko, Said.

Att: 31,332

Ref: Sten Kaldma (Estonia).