Angelos Charisteas celebrates after scoring for Greece against Portugal in the final of the UEFA Euro 2004. (imago Images)
UEFA Euros, just like any other historical football competition, has been enriched with a number of upsets over the duration of its existence. After all, who doesn’t like to see David beat Goliath?
Well, probably the fans of the country that has been beaten, but still, you get our point. Let us now see the three biggest UEFA Euros upsets over the years that continue to live long in the memory of not just the victors, but the entire footballing world.
We start off with a match that is more recent and fresh in the memory of every England and Iceland fan around the globe. As with any other international tournament, England went into the 2016 edition with a real belief that they could reach the final of the competition for the first time in their history.
The Three Lions made it out of their group and were tasked with facing a lowly Iceland in the last-16 stage of the tournament. Easy, right? Well, only for the first 5 minutes. A Wayne Rooney penalty put Roy Hodgson’s men ahead but that was the only goal they would score.
A long throw-in the 6th minute ended up in a Ragnar Sigurdsson goal while Joe Hart made a blunder to let Kolbeinn Sigthorsson’s shot go past him in the 18th minute. The full-time score was 2-1 and it was described by the media as one of the darkest days in England’s footballing history.
Denmark did not even qualify for the 1992 edition of the Euros but still managed to win it. This strange occurrence only took place because Yugoslavia backed out from the competition before it started, with Denmark getting the place.
The Danes somehow managed to scrape through to the finals, seeing off Netherlands in the semis only via a penalty shootout. In Germany, they had the 1990 FIFA World Cup champions. And bear in mind that the Danes had never won a major international tournament before.
Well, what a time to break the duck. John Jensen opened the scoring in brilliant fashion in the first half while a weak left-footed effort from Kim Vilfort sealed the Danish win 12 minutes from time.
Their star goalie, Kasper Schmeichel, described the win as an ‘unbelievable‘ feeling. The Danes are yet to replicate that success again but would hope that being part-hosts in this year’s tournament brings some luck to them.
There were a lot of things in Portugal’s favour when they made the final of the UEFA European Championship in 2004. The Portuguese were the host nation and the final was held at Estadio Da Luz in Lisbon. They also boasted of a team far superior on paper than their counterparts.
But little did they know what was in store for them. The Greek defence stood tall and kept a clean sheet in the final while a glorious Angelos Charisteas header, still etched fresh in Greece’s collective memory, ended up being the only goal of the game. Cited by many as the biggest upset in the history of international football, it is a game no one would be forgetting in a hurry.
Greece, under manager Otto Rehhagel, conceded no goals in the knockout stages of the tournament and beat Portugal in the group stages of the same competition as well by a 2-1 scoreline. Hence, the final wasn’t a one-off result but the deserved outcome of a legendary campaign.
