The Greatest Football upsets of all time

1) Greece winning Euro 2004
The greatest upset of all-time is Greece stunning the world, to win Euro 2004 against all expectations. Before the start of the tournament, Greece was 100-1 outsiders to victory in Portugal. However what happened in the course of the tournament has become folklore. They may not have been very attractive to watch, nor were they the best side but what they were, was a team. It was a perfect example of individuals not winning football matches but teams triumphing instead.
They arrived at the finals as massive underdogs but played party pooper in the group stages, beating the hosts Portugal on day one and qualifying for the quarter-finals, at the expense of Spain and Russia. The Greeks then dethroned reigning champions France in the last eight, before they defeated the hot favourites Czech Republic in the semis. It was back to Lisbon for the final and a rematch with Portugal. Despite their opening success over the Portuguese, still nobody believed Otto Rehhagel’s team could pull it off again. They did though, with Angelos Charisteas heading home an Angelis Basinas corner, ten minutes into the second half. Hard pressing and a solid defensive display afterwards, was enough to break Portuguese hearts again and surprise the world.

2) Denmark and Euro 1992
In 1992, Denmark didn’t even qualify to play in that year’s Euro but were put into the tournament after Yugoslavia was broken into Serbia and Montenegro. But after the two new countries were facing UN sanctions for war crimes from their war with Bosnia, UEFA had to act and forced the remaining parts of Yugoslavia to withdraw from the tournament and in came Denmark.
In the tournament, Denmark, with great goalkeeping from Peter Schmeichel, caused one shock after another as they scalped the French, the Dutch (who were the defending European Champions), and the defending World Cup Champions Germany on their way to Euro’92 glory.

3) West Germany and the Goliaths
West Germany has always been one of the superpowers of world football. However two of their three World Cup titles were won when the whole world was least expecting them to be the champions.
The Hungarian team of 1954 World Cup nicknamed ‘Mighty Magyars’ of Puskas, Boszik, Kocsis and Hidegkuti rival the 1974 World Cup’s Dutch side of Johan Cruyff for the title of greatest side never to win the World Cup thanks to an amazing turnaround in fortune for the West Germans that they refer to as the ‘Miracle of Berne’. Hungary beat the Germans 8-3 in a group game in Basle and another pasting was envisaged when Hungary ran to a 2-0 lead but an incredible performance from Toni Turek in the German goal and some dirty weather that hampered the Hungarians’ passing game saw an incredible turn around and the underdogs had their day.

Likewise, people were enthralled by the revolutionary ‘Total Football’ of the Netherlands’ team in the 1974 World Cup as they steamrolled every team on their way to the finals. However the Germans had other plans as they stunned the overwhelming favourites 2-1.

4) The debutants and the World Champions
The 1990 World Cup witnessed a monumental upset on the very first day of the tournament as a nine men Cameroon team hold on to defeat the reigning world champions Argentina, with Diego Maradona still at his peak. The Western African country continued its fairytale run till the quarter finals where they were eventually defeated by England. 
Another African newcomer to the World Cup, Senegal, shocked World and European champions France, to win the opening game of the 2002 World Cup in Seoul by virtue of a solitary goal from Papa Boupa Diop. This was one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history, as the decline of this great dynasty of French players had started in the most unceremonious of ways.

5) The ‘Fateful Final’ at Maracana
Brazil remain the only world champions to have ever lost a World Cup final at home in what the residents of Rio de Janeiro term the ‘Fateful Final’. Goals from Schiaffino and Gigghia overturned a 1-0 deficit for Uruguay, who had been expected to be defeated by the home team with minimal fuss but ended up crashing the biggest football party there had been to that date in front of over 200,000 partisan home fans in the famous Maracana Stadium.