The UEFA European Football Championship Biggest Surprises

The FIFA World Cup might be the biggest and most-watched sports tournament globally, but the ugly reality is that only a few countries have won the cup since 1930, when the first competition of the cup was organized.

The UEFA European Football Championship, on the other hand, has been an exciting tournament since it started in the year 1960. However, there have been a series of upsets in the sixteen editions of the tournament

In this piece, you will read about some of the unexpected wins and other forms of upsets that the tournament has produced.

The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship

The Euro 2004 was filled with a lot of surprises and upsets. The Greeks found themselves in the same group with more vigorous opponents like Germany, Spain, and Italy. Surprisingly, Greece looked unbothered and was able to defeat these countries.

The Greeks proceeded to the semifinal after beating defending champions France in the quarter-final. This was a big surprise to many people, but what really helped Greece was that they put a lot of effort into tightening their defense. A similar approach was used in the semifinal, allowing them to defeat the Czech Republic in a game that ended 1-0.

Portugal and France met again in the final, but the Portuguese found it challenging to penetrate the Greeks’ defense, and the game ended 1-0 in favor of Greece.

The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship

This was a tournament that went in favor of a team that participated in the tournament by luck. After failing to qualify for the tournament, Denmark miraculously got themselves in the game by replacing Yugoslavia — a team that had already qualified for the tournament.

However, the tournament started, and Denmark didn’t only win most of their matches but also secured a place in the final. Denmark won the final following a 2-0 win over Germany.