The 7 Greatest Underdog Stories In Football History
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- čas přidán 11. 06. 2024
- From Greece's heroic Euro 2004 conquest to Leicester City winning the 2015-16 Premier League title, HITC Sevens takes a look at some of the greatest underdog stories throughout the history of football.
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Another fun fact about Wigan's win is that from 2011-13 England sent five teams to the Europa League and four of them were Wigan, Birmingham City, Stoke and Swansea 😂
Another fact that people forget is Wigan got to the semi-final the next season winning 10 consecutive FA Cup games in a row, taking my team Arsenal (the eventual winners) to penalties in the semi-final.
I think back in the days (probably before 2013) Europa League still allowed team who finished runner up in domestic cup to play in next season, in case the winner already qualified for Champions League, that's why you saw Stoke there 😂 although Birimingham and Swansea were legit winners
@@justhuy7960 wish that rule didn't change tbh
@@stealthiscool Beating Man City again at The Etihad in the quarter-final and denying them a domestic treble.
@@stealthiscoolwas that the one when they played against millwall?
What Otto Rehhagel did is incredible. Winning the Euros with Greek and winning the Bundesliga with Kaiserslautern after being promoted from the second division.
Irrelevant - sorry
@@lutontown5923 like your club
@@lutontown5923 Kaiserslautern is more relevant than your club
@@lutontown5923the irony in a Luton Town fan calling another team and manager irrelevant is beyond hilarious. 🤡
@@lutontown5923said the Luton fan 💀💀💀
From an Iraqi, the 2007 was one of my favourite moment of all time. The happiness it brought my country was unmatched during a period of extreme heartache.
The fact that both father (Peter Schmeichel) and son (Kasper Schmeichel) won their respective trophies playing for underdog teams, playing in the same position (GK) is so cool
DNA heritage. Can't wait for his grandchild to do that
Remember: Schmeichel Sr. also won the Treble with Manchester United in 1999 as a team captain!
@@ezraezra2928not an underdog though. They were already serial trophy winners.
I’m pretty sure Peter and kasper both won the premier league at the same age
Pretty sure it was even on the same day
Im biased because theyre my team but St. Johnstone's 2020/2021 league cup and scottish cup double was an insane achievement. No team had done that outside the Old Firm since Sir Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen. They were St Johnstone's second and third *ever* major domestic cups with our first being a Scottish cup triumph in 2014. The manager we had for 6 years left at the start of the season and his assistant manager took that team to something that could never be thought possible. Beating Rangers (who were by far the best team in Scotland that season) in the Scottish Cup quarter finals on penalties with our goalkeeper heading from a last minute cross (for an assist) was when I knew we could go all the way. Not to mention we won both finals 1-0 with the same scorer, on the same minute both from crosses into the box. It sucks it was over lockdown and nobody could attend any of the games but I don't think that should take away the achievement of it.
Sticking with Scottish football, I'd add Hibernian defeating Rangers at the 2016 Cup final.
@@Ese96AgoayeHibs beating rangers and saints doing a double are too different levels of achievement 😂
Also add Aberdeen winning the Uefa Cup winner's cup against Real Madrid in 1983
An Israeli (my country) player played there, guy melamed
that stat... about the same score, same scorer, same minute, both finals that should, by rights, not have been won by the team that did.. is truly weird, what an achievement, hats off
I went to the Greek National Football museum in Crete in 2021 and lifted their replica Euro 04 trophy. They are incredibly proud of that achievement and rightly so.
The museum is well worth a visit - it looks like a shop from the outside. It has many matchworn shirts from not only Greek legends, but international superstars like Messi, Maradona, Beckham, Zidane and many many more.
Now that sounds cool
@@chlcrkit really is. They asked me what my team was and I reply 'Portsmouth in England' - he has a quick look on a clothes rack before pulling out a match worn Pompey shirt from former Greek international, Theofanis Gekas! 🤯
They got lucky we lost against them
That place is indeed pretty cool. I also went there in '21.. But in '04 I went to the olympic stadium in athens welcoming the team home.. 500.000 people showed up.. its was quite crazy
@@BOABModels That is a crazy rare shirt! Just looked it up, he only played a single match for Portsmouth!
I think Magdeburg winning the 1973-74 European Cup Winners' Cup deserves to be mentioned.
Only East German club to win a European trophy
Disagree. Magdeburg was a strong team at the time, and contained Jurgen Sparwasser. Might not have been the clearest betting option at the time but it’s not an all time shock.
Or Slovan Bratislava 1969. Well, CWC was a kind of competition. And I feel a bit nostalgic about it.
@@Maclib_ The rest of them probably in jail because of roid rage.
@@hitthurdeaux Still, back then it was considered quite the shock. Germany's 1954 team had amazing players as well. Fritz Walter is considered by some to be one of the finest nuber 10s of all time. And I would guess you wouldn't rule them out for this 7, would yo?
Dude, you should DEFINITELY check what's going on in the Brazilian League this year. Botafogo just blew a 13 point lead in a month after a 9 game streak without winning. In these late games, Botafogo simply imploded after leading the tournament for the whole season losing 4-3 to Palmeiras at home after scoring 3 - 0 in the first half. After that, EVERY GAME has been unbelievable. Botafogo keeps conceding goals at the very last moments of every match. This is literally the he craziest plot of the the calendar year in world football.
Classic unlucky Botafogo
They deserve it. That penalty they got the other day on the 90nth min was a robbery. Thankfully justice came back to bite them.
And featuring the somewhat Spanish striker, Diego Costa.
And now palmeiras will win the league
Montpellier was such a good story. They beat PSG's new money and Giroud was leading the line
😂😂😂
PSG not at their peak yet but yes a surprise story nonetheless
Any tale featuring Giroud is a good story.
They were an unbelievably uninspiring team like Leicester too! They were barely back from Ligue 2 and had finished 14th the year before…
They sacked their manager mid season because Carlo Ancelotti became available, which paid off shortly after, but didn't avoid the ignominy of losing a league title to Montpellier
I suppose Aberdeen breaking the Celtic and Rangers monopoly and winning the Scottish league title on a few occasions during the 1980s, alongside a few domestic cups not to mention defeating Real Madrid in the cup winners cup final something that would be completely unthinkable nowadays, all under the manager of Alex Ferguson before he went to Manchester United in fact Aberdeen were the last club to win the Scottish top flight title apart from Celtic and Rangers back in 1985 which is incredible when you think about it
Ffs😂 - scottish football…..snooze fest, let alone the 1980’s😂😂😂😂😂.
@lutontown5923 lol English football is all foreign owned. Sold your soul. Even your stadiums all got Arab names and shit. Plastic fans in Plastic league
that’s why the scottish league is shit and the old firm kills the scottish game, it’s only “prestigious” because it features the only two decent teams in the country.
@franze4 real reason is glory hunters. I'm from Fife. 1990 lots of hearts hibs Dundee utd. Dunfermline and Raith fans. Sports shops sold these shirts. By 2000 only selling rangers celtic
Says it all
Leicester City winning the EPL and Nottingham Forest winning back to back European cups are the main ones that come to mind and Wimbledon coming up from the non league all the way up to the top flight within a decade and remaining there for 14 seasons before suffering relegation in 2000 after which the club ended up relocating to Milton Keynes to become MK Dons
Forest had great players back then.
Wimbledon disappeared in 2000 before being usurped by franchise FC the McDon's.
😂😂😂 all non entities.
I feel like you should have had Western Sydney Wanderers winning the Asian Champions League in 2014.
The smallest club in the competition. total wage bill of $2M AUD, Which was less than clubs they were facing were spending on individual wages, 13,000km trip for the final game in Riyadh and won Australia's only Champions League title.
Also notable for the fact that The Wanderers did not even exist a few years earlier.. (founded in 2012.)
Bro you know the referee of that game was jailed for bribes right? The biggest referee scandal in afc’s history and you’re saying they are deserved underdogs? Thats crazy
Barca vs chelsea was a fucking masterpiece compared to that away final
you have no idea fk face watch the game
@@Faisal-zi7hs
@@Faisal-zi7hs as if Western Sydney could afford to bribe a referee
Asian Champions League only asians watch that series I dont think this channel owner give a shit about it no offense
My local team in Sweden did a Leicester the year before. IFK Norrköping was almost regegated in 2014, to then and went on to win the league in 2015.
Western Sydney wanderers winning asian champions league in 2015 is a good shout to check out just a few years after being created in a 1mill salary cap beating the free spending Al-Hilal and playing some of the furthest away days in football history and also some interesting stories like a chinese Gangzhou evergrande fan driving into the team bus and stuff to try stop them
What a prick. That Chinese fan
I think of Pachuca's 2006 win of Copa Sudamericana. It was hurt a lot (I'm Chilean) but before Pachuca's shock conquest, no Mexican team was able to win any major CONMEBOL trophy until that year and Mexican teams were widely mocked and humiliated by South American sides.
Or Cienciano in 04 too
I'd say Once Caldas 2004 libertadores, mainly because it's more important than the Sudaméricana, but they won it against the last champion, Boca Juniors, and being Once Caldas a pretty much tiny team even in Colombia
@@mgm8255 and beating the future champions, Sao Paulo, in the semis
Mexican teams actually competed and made a few finals as well. Pumas, cruz azul, america, chivas and tigres to name a few.
What about Kí Klaksvík? They managed to qualify for the Conference League, just narrowly losing out of Europa league. A Tiny team from Klaksvík in the faroe islands, from a town of about 6000 people. and a stadium with a capacity with less than 3000 spectators.
Brazil Cup winners from the 2004 and 2005 seasons, Santo André and Paulista, both playing in lower tier Brazilian League, back to back winning the title in the Maracanã Stadium against Flamengo and Fluminense are arguably Brazil's best underdogs stories :V
Fun Fact: Flamengo and Fluminense were the local owners of Maracana Stadium, which formed the Rio de Janeiro Derby known as "Fla-Flu". They were also the last two winners of the Copa Libertadores! That's why having an amateur sides beating the future winners of the Copa Libertadores is still a great achievement.
the 1954 Germany side's star man Fritz Walter is one of the most underappreciated German legends of all time in my opinion. Everything I've learnt about the man has left me surprised he isn't talked about more when it comes to Germany's all time greats
Cuz too long ago
Well, actually he is talked about a lot in Germany. And most people consider him one of our finest ever players.
@@AblemanSy that definitely makes me happy to hear. I'm an Australian of Uk and German blood but most my experience of peoples opinions on great players comes from the internet. It does make sense that Germans appreciate him a lot more than others
I won a good few quid when Greece won the Euros. Their defence was brilliant in the games leading up to the final
ONce Caldas (not pronounced as "ONce upon a time" but as ON - Ce [as in ON-Off switch]) winning the Libertadores was an insane moment in south american football, and specially here in Colombia. Throughout their history, Caldas have been more of a mid table club in Colombian football, ocassionally building a fairly good squad to put some pressure on the bigger clubs for the top 8 places (which lead to the play-offs) but never really stablishing themselves as a serious title contender. But with the leadership of coach Luis Fernando Montoya they were able to win the title in 2003 (only their second title, the first all the way back in 1950) and then made a hugely entertaining and adventurous run through the Libertadores to reach the final, against one of the most successful and arguably the strongest south american club in the early 2000s Boca Juniors. The squad wasn't anything spectacular either, but rather a collection of many experienced veterans and several young prospects, and while not the most talented bunch, you could see they were playing with huge determination, passion and ferocity, and their games were always fun. Unfourtunatelly, but not that surprisingly, the team ended up losing most of their title and Libertadores winning squad players on the following couple of seasons. Additionally, Montoya suffered a tragic violent assault on December 2004, as he tried to defend his wife from a group of muggers who attemted to rob her, and ended up receiving two shots which significantly affected his spinal cord. If winning an unlikely and extremely entertaining Libertadores Cup wasn't enough to endear Montoya to the country, even after the assault and even knowing that due to that assault he would not be able to ever walk again and would also spend many years without being able to speak, he went on to forgive the muggers and send a message to the whole nation about forgiveness and hope for peace. He has become a symbol for hope and for peace among football supporters, and to all the country, and is often lovingly nicknamed "El profesor de la vida [The professor of life]". Once Caldas winning the Libertadores is definitely one of my favorite moments in football, and made me love this game even more than I already did.
Chilean here, I remember them having an interesting squad in 2011 Libertadores too
Honestly, Leicester City’s league win is probably one of the greatest achievements in sports history. We’ll prob never see anything like it again for another few decades (unless Girona FC keeps up their momentum).
Girona are owned by the Abu Dhabi group but none the less are doing well and I have got a fiver on them at 250/1
This channel is just something else, i love it here
Everytime Alfie mentions Kaiserslautern’s 98 title win i giggle like a little child
Morocco's run to the 2022 WC semi's deserved a mention. First ever African side to go that far at a World Cup
Yeah but its for Club/Country who Won something
Surprised to see Real Madrid Castilla get mentioned but not Hertha BSC II, who made it to the DFB Pokal final and lost 1-0 in 1993. This is especially amazing because the main squad has also only ever been to one final, which they lost too.
I’d say early-mid 80s Aberdeen and Dundee Utd is worth a shout, breaking the Glasgow duopoly as they did for a bit.
Even then, three years without either Rangers or Celtic winning the title seems unthinkable, and there was European success too.
In Peru, we remember the miracle of Cienciano in 2003. At that time, we really had a team to love for - Cienciano was a small club compared to Alianza Lima, Universitario and Sporting Cristal, but they won the 2003 Copa Sudamericana and 2004 Recopa, to give Peru its first and only club honours. More impressive was they beat two Argentine giants River and Boca in these finals. Since then, no Peruvian team has ever had a chance to win again nor even made such a deep run.
Honorable Mentions:
1.Western Sydney Wanderers. The club was formed in 2012, but somehow surprised a lot by reaching A-League Final on its debut season. The year afterwards was even surprising. They became the first (and the only) Australian clubs to ever won the Champions League. They topped the Group of Death that contained Kawasaki Frontale and Ulsan Hyundai, then eliminated both previous finalists (Guangzhou Evergrande and FC Seoul) to reach the final, where they controversially played a negative football to win the tournament by 1-0.
2.Ventforet Kofu: They became the first Japanese clubs outside of J1 League to ever won the Emperor's Cup. The 2nd-tier side also followed its historic run this season by playing in the knockout rounds of AFC Champions League for the first time.
3.Klaksvík: This Faroese clubs qualified for the Conference League, despite its town had a population around 6000 people and its stadium being smaller. They beat Ferencvaros and Hacken in the Champions League qualifying rounds, but narrowly lost to Molde and Sheriff Tiraspol.
4.You missed the point where there is another French amateur side known as Les Herbiers VF, who managed to reach the 2018 Coupe de France Final. They lost 0-2 to PSG, but their journey to this penultimate stage was done after beating fellow non-Ligue 1 clubs, such as Auxerre and Lens, who were, at that time, playing in Ligue 2.
5.The 1980 Copa del Rey Final between Real Madrid and Castilla CF was such a historic note that a reserve teams couldn't be participated in this competition since 1990.
6.Zambia's 2012 AFCON triumph was even hillarious that it happened in Libreville, whose stadiums was only a few hundred metres inland from the site of the 1993 air disaster that killed most of Zambian players. In a twist of fate, Herve Renard, the manager at that time, went on to win another AFCON with the losing side of that game, Ivory Coast, 3 years later.
7.In women's football, everyone remembered about Japan's historic World Cup triumph in 2011. While most expected Brazil (with Ballon d'Or winners Marta), USWNT with a young Alex Morgan, and the host Germany to win that tournament, the Nadeshiko defied all odds, masterminded by the magic of Homare Sawa, who went on to win the Ballon d'Or due to the success of the national team. Japan played against USWNT on 3 different finals (2 World Cup Finals and 2012 Olympic Women's Football Final).
Didn’t read allat but had to like
🎯🎯
Other than the European championships in 2004 Greece have been unspectacular on the international football scene which made that victory all the more remarkable I remember watching it at the time and although the team lacked a superstar of any sort their pragmatic approach and team work got them over the line against supposedly superior opponents it does show that what talent you have on paper isn't always relevant its hoe you fuction as a team that key I mean having superstar players isn't always a guarantee of success either if the players don't link well together
Mental
I think Bradford City's 12/13 league cup run should have been included. League two team was able to beat 3 premier league teams including Arsenal and championship playoff finalists watford to get all the way to the final.
I think Kaiserslautern winning the Bundesliga as newly promoted team should be in the 7. Also the DFB Pokal run of Hertha Berlin's second team in 1992 when they went all the way to the final and lost there against Bayer Leverkusen would have deserved an honourable mention!
Union Saint Gilloise did the same thing as Kaiserslautern. They won a promotion in 2021, then won a league a year later. The problem is that Jupiler Pro League has a unique format, compared to the other major football leagues like Premier League, where a championship playoffs was also happened. Despite winning the regular season, they lost the title to Club Brugge. The club also went all the way to the Europa League QF, overcoming the likes of Braga, Malmo, and Union Berlin (they even faced the latter twice in groups and R16).
I honestly never felt that way about the Wigan FA Cup final. We were obviously favourites, but bear in mind they were a Premier League side, and we had won the FA Cup once since 1969. Going in, it never felt remotely like an upset was impossible. At that point we were still emerging from decades of "typical city". Maybe it felt different from the outside, but I was never as confident about it as I might be now.
Arguably Wigan winning at The Etihad in the quarter-finals as a Championship club the following season was a bigger upset.
... And Wigan beating the centurion side in the fifth-round as a League One club in 2018 was arguably even bigger than that! 😂
Also, the team was checked out on the coach. I knew he was finished when I saw the result.
Once Caldas Libertadores 2004, beating Santos, Sao Paulo, and Boca Juniors deserves a mention here.
Deportivo La Coruna, Steaua Bucharest, and Aberdeen’s Europa League win could’ve made the list on another day.
deportivo were on their golden generation and only won the league in 2000 because every other team underperformed
Wrexham are the greatest underdog story ever, or so their owners/documentary makers would have you believe.
The romance of doling out League 1/Championship wages in non league football. You can't beat it.
No there not at all 😂, because they got rich owners the returned to the football league 🤣 what they played many years
@@petesmart1983 Pete smart by name but not by nature it seems
I think you should make a video about Clairefontaine, the world's best and finest football academy today. This academy produces a number of future superstar in a rate far ahead of Spain's La Liga to a point that many future football talents are found there. Using the academy experience, France managed to turn themselves into a football superpower since the 1990s and has two golden generations.
The Danish winning the Euros was such a shock, they decided to add a World Cup star to their shirt and still haven't realized the World is laughing at them 🤣
The world is laughing?
@@fifabots Yes. It's the first question their fans get asked. How embarrassing
I always look forward to your videos. They're so well thought out and presented.
Will also give a mention to my local club, Swindon Town. They won the League Cup Final against Arsenal in 1969 despite being two divisions lower at the time. Swindon had to play 11 matches en route to the final compared to Arsenal's 6.
Many others have mentioned it but i feel the Western Sydney Wanderers should've been on this list due to the sheer odds they had to overcome.
Topped a group of death against Ulsan Hyundai and Kawasaki Frontale, beat the Chinese and Japanese Champions en route to the final for a club that formed 2 years prior and hadnt even won the Championship.
And in the final, Al-Hilal's boss insulted the club, the keeper had lasers shone in his eyes and after they won the Saudi's tried to interrupt our celebrations by spitting and creating a scuffle. Nobody expected or wanted them to win, but they did so anyway
2004 was a true rollercoaster. Watching my team FC Porto winning the Champions League (which by the way also deserved a spot on this list) was just out of this world, only to see Portugal loose the final against Greece a couple of months after that...
5:42 goes hard af
The Sopranos’ biggest influence
I think Greece's achievement was nothing short of a miracle because the road to victory was full of world class teams with some of football's greatest players of all time like Zidane, Henry, Trezeguet, Vieira, Pires, Figo, Ronaldo, Rui Costa, Deco, Nedved, Rosicky, Baros, Puyol, Xavi, Morientes and many many more. First, qualifying from a Group that had not one, but two favorites for the title. Then knocking out, the first favorite and by the time, the World and European Champions and maybe the best national team of the last several decades, France, then the team playing the best football during Euro04, Czech with the best team of their history and of course Portugal, the hosts of the tournament, 2nd favotire AND a dream team with some of footballs most legendary players. And all that without a single super star player, half of the team's players (which were those that featured in the starting 11) were playing domestically and the rest who were playing in the likes of Roma, Benfica, Inter, Atletico Madrid of Ajax were used as subtitutes rarely starting a match on the main squad both in Greece National Team and their Clubs. But the mastermind of the success, Otto Rehhagel, created a family, not just a team and that was the secret behind that incredible underdog tale.
I am honoured to mention the 2000 UEFA Cup victory of Galatasaray. Their shock conquest made them the only Turkish club to win a major trophy so far. We are so proud of that chapter.
Funny thing about Wigan vs City was that the following season they had a rematch in the FA Cup and Wigan won that match too xD
Wigan also beat City 1-0 in 2018 FA Cup, the same season City won the Premier League with an unwanted record of 100 points.
@@ezraezra2928Guess the City defence were terrified, then.
Hi could you please do a video about an Egyptian player called Abu treka and the Egyptian golden team that won three African championships back to back it will be a nice introduction to his career
Dortmund 2011 comes to mind. They were still in a lot of debt, were a relegation candidate only 3 years earlier and thus were in a far worse position than most other clubs. They were still able to build up a title-winning team and got into a position where they were title contenders for the last 10 years (more or less)
Sir Alf Ramsey's Ipswich Town won the English league title in 1961-62, their first season in the top flight. This is arguably a bigger feat than Leicester.
And the rest for Sir Alf Ramsey himself is simply history: the greatest moment of the English Football history that will never be repeated in 57 years.
Second Division Sunderland's 1973 FA Cup Win v Top Flight Leeds (who were reigning FA Cup Champions & had in the previous 4 Seasons finished in the Top Flight 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, would come 3rd in '73 and were Champions in 1973/74) somehow never gets talked about by non-Sunderland fans, especially younger ones, but it is definitely at least an honourable mention. The magnitude of Leeds at the time and the sheer fact no-one gave Sunderland any hope & Sunderland were in the Division below.
People talk about Wimbledon, they even got a mention here, but they finished 7th in the Top Flight that Season, the gulf in class was nowhere near that of Leeds v Sunderland, its like if Brighton winning it v City this Season, the story is great, and from what followed it became the icing on the cake of that story, but in context of the 2 teams that got to each Final, theres no way Wimbledon tops the underdog story of Sunderland in 1973.
Not to forget they beat Arsenal (touted as the second best team after Dirty Leeds) in the semi...
@@Katy_Jones exactly. Also it's crazy to watch the Final back now and see just how 'dirty' Leeds were. I whinced at almost every challenge 🤣
Montpellier in 2012 has to be up there
Great video dude!
Relegation favourites Reggina are docked an 11 point penalty in 06/07, dooming them to certainly drop from Serie A to B. They have a blinder of a season to overcome the points penalty and on the final fixture, sitting in the final relegation spot, beat Champions League winners AC Milan to clinch safety!
You are missing the Faroe Islands first international game against Austria. Should have had a honorable mention at least :)
Indeed, there are 3 memorable results that Faroese Football will never forget since that Landskrona game: a double victory against Greece in Euro 2016 qualifiers, a stunning win against Turkey in 2022 Nations League, and a monumental goalless draw when they faced Albania away in the last match of Euro 2024 qualifiers.
Also, shout out to Klaksvík, who managed to play in the European club competition for the first time after grabbing a monumental wins against Ferencvaros, Hacken, and Olimpija Ljubljana.
I think the Polish Cup finals of 1975 and 1983 also deserve an honorable mention, since both featured a second tier team playing a third tier team. In 1983 the third tier side won the cup and went on to play Juventus in the Cup Winners’ Cup. You would be surprised at how often non-top flight teams used to feature in the Polish cup final, including reserve teams
My parents' birth country Uzbekistan also holds a unique record that worth living to the underdog status. Uzbekistan regained independence from Russia in 1991, but our football was in an absolute shamble that, when we took part in the Asian Games 1994, nobody gave a damn about our existence. In fact people were talking about South Korea, Japan, China and even Saudi Arabia, Iran and the UAE as favourites. Yet for a historic moment we defied our logic to become champions in Uzbekistan's just maiden debut in any football competition, even when Asian Games was not a big event compared to later Asian Cup or World Cup.
The Euros have definitely been amazing for these kinds of things with Denmark winning despite being a replacement team and Greece not only winning it but at thay point they had never won a match at a tournament before and also beat the hosts Portugal in both the opening match and Final. Then seeing Leicester winning the Premier League gave me hope that even in the days of huge amounts of money tactics and team spirit can still win out.
In 2012/13 a 3rd league Team (FC Pasching) won the Austrian Cup beating each of the top 3 Teams from the 1st League along the way. They didn't even play them on home soil.
One of those teams was Red Bull Salzburg wo had Sadio Mané at that time.
Other honourable mentions:
Vauxhall Motors of the Northern Premier League knocking out QPR in the 2002/03 FA Cup.
The “Alcorconazo” - Alcorcon knocking out Real Madrid in the 2009/10 Copa Del Rey, winning 4-0 at home.
Third-tier FC Pasching winning the Austrian Cup in 2012/13.
Morocco/Senegal/Costa Rica’s respective World Cup runs in 2022, 2002 and 2014 respectively.
The Dorking Wanderers story (not sure if you’ve done a vid on this!)
Great content as always, Alfie!
The Alcorconazo is probably one of the biggest upsets in the cup competitions, especially when you see that Real Madrid had started a new chapter of the Galacticos under Perez after the failure of the original one in 2000s. They brought the likes of Ronaldo, Kaka, and Benzema. During that game, Real Madrid fielded the experienced players like Raul and Guti, as well as Benzema himself, but against a third-tier whose stadiums undergoing the major renovation the following months. Many European sport presses had even made this upset as a major headline at that time.
Indeed, you can also include Bayern Munich losing to Saarbrücken on this season's DFB Pokal.
I am from Czechia and the 2004 Euro was very painful for us, we had a golden generation team that was killed by a boring Greece. Thankfully Greece has since been relegated as a mid-sized team in Europe, it did us some justice.
However I would also argue some other underdogs included:
1. Western Sydney Wanderers for winning Australia's first AFC Champions League title after having been created in just two years.
2. Athletic Bilbao's historic run to the final of 2011-12 Europa League with an exclusively Basque-filled members.
3. Romania and Bulgaria in the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
4. Qatar's shock conquest of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, given most dismissed Qatar as outsider.
5. Once Caldas' 2004 Copa Sudamericana triumph.
6. Pachuca's historic victory in the 2006 Copa Sudamericana, the first Mexican team to win a South American tournament.
7. Cienciano, the first Peruvian club to win the 2003 Copa Sudamericana before winning the 2004 Recopa Sudamericana, dismissed as outsider prior to the start.
8. Japan's historic victory in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup at the backdrop of a natural disaster at home.
9. Uzbekistan's shock victory in the 1994 Asian Games, the first-ever football tournament debut of Uzbekistan as an independent state.
10. Seattle Sounders, the first American team to win the CONCACAF Champions League in 2022.
11. Benin's shock deep run in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, the first African national team to reach the quarter-finals without gaining a single competitive AFCON win (5D, 9L), including knocking out powerhouse Morocco in process.
12. Turkey's 2002 FIFA World Cup run.
13. Bolivia's victory at the 1963 Copa America, the country's only Copa America trophy.
14. Galatasaray's 2000 UEFA Cup triumph.
15. Bahrain's shock 2004 AFC Asian Cup run as they finished fourth.
16. Iceland's phenomenal 2016 UEFA Euro campaign.
17. Madagascar's heroic 2019 African Cup of Nations debut.
18. AS Vita's 2014 CAF Champions League run as they almost conquered Africa before losing to Algerian outfit Setif in the final.
Why are you glad they’ve fell off? Of course they wanted to win just like everyone else, why did you take it personally?
Great point for mentioning a honorable underdogs. Also, Once Caldas won the Libertadores in 2004, not the Copa Sudamerican.
Added several honorable mentions for the underdogs:
1.Malaga's historic run to the 2012-13 Champions League quarterfinal, two years after the club was acquired by the Qatar ownership and after La Liga's fourth place finish.
2.Gambia's heroic AFCON quarterfinal run in 2021 as a debutant and the lowest ranked one from all of 24 participants.
3.Comoros' shock deep run in the same AFCON 2021 tournament, despite missing several key players, notably 3 goalkeepers from the squad, including knocking out Ghana from the tournament. During the game against Cameroon, an outfield player was played as a backup goalkeeper, making an unorthodox saves to prevent heavy defeats as they only lose 1-2.
4.Colombia's historic quarterfinal run in 2023 Women's World Cup. They eliminated one of the powerhouses Germany and almost eliminated England from the tournament. In this tournament, the likes of Jamaica, South Africa, and Morocco reached the knockout stages.
5.Red Bull Bragantino, the new Brazil underdog that reached the 2021 Sudamericana Final after being acquired by the same energy drink company that owns Salzburg and Leipzig.
6.Hong Kong's historic run in the 2022 Asian Games, when they beat Iran in quarterfinal to reach the semifinal. The senior team also returned to the Asian Cup after a long period.
7.Russia's shock 2018 World Cup run as they reached quarterfinals, despite being ranked the lowest in all 32 participants and didn't won the friendly games before the tournament had began.
8.APOEL in the 2011-12 Champions League, the first Cypriot team to do so.
9.Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the 2014-15 Europa League.
10.Wales' shock Euro 2016 run as they reached semifinal.
I feel bad for you, you got screwed by the silver goal, not the golden goal, the silver goal
An honorable mention has to be Astra Giurgiu, a team from Giurgiu, Romania. The team was initially founded in 1921 in Ploiesti (thus the name Astra) but in 2012 they changed to Giurgiu for "better results" (they we're more of a local level team and only made some promotions to Liga 1 but didnt resist much. However, in 2016, they had players waiting for their salaries 6months-1year as it was on a financial collapse, but that didnt stop the legendary manager Marius Sumudica from winning the league, despite the players getting paid almost nothing the whole season, but despite that they had lots of talents such as Alibec, Teixeira, Silviu Lung Jr., etc. After that, in the European Competitions they became West Ham's worst nightmare, eliminating them from 2 consecutive UEL qualifiers. They we're looking good but sadly from 2019 things became only worse. In 2020 they some of the players we're found of doping because of the "clinic" instagram post. And in 2021 their owner was arrested and sentenced, thus the team remained with no funds and the same year they relegated. From there, in 2022 they relegated to the third division of Romania (Liga 3), where they got beaten by extreme scores (17-0, 19-0, etc) and in September 2023 they officialy dissolved. Truly a story to tell
as a west ham fan they’re probably the only team i’d be scared of facing in europe if they still existed, and we’ve only lost 1 meaningful game of our last 30 european games 😂😂😂
Did Alfie made this kind of video beforehand a long time ago?
@@ezraezra2928yes 😊
@@themoyesiah100yea West Ham fans Love them haha 😂
I'm sorry, but Nottingham Forest going from Div 2 to Div 1 and winning the league. THEN, go and win the League Cup & European Cup, 2 years in a row.
THAT is the greatest achievement in world football
Raith Rovers winning the Scottish league cup against Celtic in 1994 was highly amusing and even better was seeing them take the half-time lead against Bayern Munich at home.
They were dancing in the streets of Raith!
Also as a nice Gesture, Nantes celebrated their cup title win with Calais (they held the cup together)
12:04 Uday looks like an evil Pep Guardiola for some reason
Latvia qualification to EURO 2004, but yes there have been other big surprises
Ventforet Kofu win the Cup 2022 in Japan was so fantastic👏🔥 and Zambia 2012 African Cup too👏🔥😍
Really deserved on this list for the Japanese side, since it was the first time a club outside J1 League had won the Emperor's Cup. Note that they even reached the AFC Champions League knockout stages for the first time this season!
Really appreciate Zambia's inclusion for their triumph in the 2012 AFCON.
I was just visiting friends from the UK over the summer (having gotten into football the previous winter) and my friend was telling me the story of Leicester's upset. It was incredible, jubilant and people knew they were topping the table around Christmas which is insane to think about it.
The delivery of "It would be a hell of a climax to the video if I announced he was back." about Elvis being alive is the funniest thing I've heard all week, cheers!
Valencia wasn't really an underdog in 2004 tho. They were spanish champions before that in 2002 and went all the way to the UCL final in 2000 and 2001. Valencia had a great team with players like Cañizares, Aimar, Baraja, Marchena, Mendieta, Deschamps, Claudio Lopez and many others. They basically were what Atlético is today.
Leicester’s win was so special. Even as a gunner, I was 50/50 whether i even want Arsenal to nick it. The photo taken in a pub at the moment Chelsea v Spurs ends 2-2 is insane, in a good way. Definition of unbridled joy. My addition tomthis comment section are the Dorking Wanderers, a club founded in 1999 by some friends. They have achieved 12 promotions in their subsequent 23 seasons and are niw playing in the National league. Cheers Alfie another fascinating video, keep it up…. Im a life-long footy romantic and these events are the pinnacle of football for me, you could say
I didn’t know Allen Iverson the retired basketball star had the ear of Alfie to the degree that he picks video topics.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Bulgaria at USA'94. That was an underdog story if I've ever heard one.
Underdog yes but shock not really. Stoichkov and Balakov were world class at the time
Nth Korea at England 66 Cameroon at Italia 90?
@@hitthurdeaux They even beat future World Cup winners France to make them not qualify for the 1994 tournament, and both finalists from the previous tournament in Italy, Argentina and Germany.
Oh god, no 1973 FA Cup Final? Way more significant than Wigan or Wimbledon. Sunderland were a lower division 2/championship team at the time but defeated the top 3 teams in England, including the great Leeds United in the Final, to lift the trophy. Iconic moments included Manager Bob Stoke joyously running onto the Wembley turf at the full time whistle, Porterfield’s shock at scoring and Jimmy Montgomery’s miraculous, point blank save.
No surprise for #1.
Western Sydney Wanderers deserve a mention.
It's actually criminal that the Western Sydney Wanderers don't make the list. Can you please do a video on them please, winning the 2014 AFC Champions League final?
Jamie Vardy will forever be partying
Well you have the magic story of swedish div2 team Östersund FK that went straight from, division two to the top of swedish premier in 2 seasons, and then went out in europe and chocked the world.
its like having a league one team, going straight up to premier and qualify for euro leage. :P
That 'Once Caldas' pronunciation is legendary. Incredible.
Alphie pronunciation of once caldas 10:08 was too hilarious. Great video as always, but as a Colombian that just stuck with me 😂
Regarding the 1985 title win of Hellas Verona, it's worth noticing that in the two seasons prior to that Hellas finished 6th and 4th, so they did have a decent side at that time. Also, in 1985 the stongest league in Europe, based on european success, was not Serie A but the english 1. division. It took the (deserved) ban on english clubs in Europe to pave the way for Serie A.
You forgot to mention Cienciano de Cuzco's Copa Sudamericana win against River Plate in 2003 and 2004 (of all years) win in the Recopa against Boca Juniors. I enjoy your content so much
Another 2 worthy honourable mentions could also come from 1997/8 along with Kaiserslautern's league title - The French top division was won by RC Lens, beating FC Metz to the title on goal difference only, as they were level on 68 points. Lens finished 13th the year before and though Metz were 5th in 1997, it was still a major feat for both sides. By 2002 Metz became a yo-yo club and Lens suffered relegation 10 years after that title triumph in 2008 starting their own yo-yo arc until recent seasons.
Lens title winning standouts Marc-Vivien Foé and Vladimír Šmicer both found themselves in the Premier League shortly after, to varying degrees of success.
ALFIE bro , I think you missed ABERDEEN one as they won the SCOTTISH LEAGUE & went to defeat REAL MADRID in the EUROPEAN CUP FINAL 🏆 ( UCL ) which been registered the last final Real Madrid ever lost that too with a young Manager like Sir ALEX FERGUSON !!!
Wasn't the ucl but very impressive nonetheless
Was the Cup Winner's Cup. They have never won the European Cup.
Southampton's 1976 fa cup win: as a second division club at the time, we had, quite literally, a one-in-a-million chance, and we were 1-0 down against villa in the third round before a 90th minute equaliser sealed a replay at the dell which we won. Went on to reach the final against mighty first-division title competitors Man United, 12 to one chance of winning that final but an 83rd minute long-range strike from ironically Portsmouth-born Bobby Stokes put the score, at full-time, southampton 1, Manchester United 0. Love an underdog story almost as much as the fact that saints' only ever major trophy was one!!
Kaiserslautern winning the League after being promoted should've been in there, in Germany it is regarded as the biggest upset in German football ever, even above 1954.
"Football succeeds, perhaps you can say, where politics has failed"
Fox Sports Asia commentator, after that 2007 Asian Cup final.
American Samoa winning a game deserve to be on the list and Yeman managing to qualify for their first AFC championship in 2019 deserves to be on the list too. I'd also have Iraq as number 1 because I think it's actually the craziest when you look at what everyone had to go through and the bombings after the semi final they nearly didn't play the final
love the picture of Histon FC
Lille won the Ligue 1 title in 2010 as well when Hazard was their star man. They have been a exceptional talent factory in French football and I don't think that their title win in 2021 whilst impressive was as unlikely as Montpellier's. Personally I'd have replaced them with Nottingham Forest's consecutive European cup wins.
France - enough said😂😂😂
@@lutontown5923 meaning ?
Two portuguese candidates to honorable mentions: Boavista 2000/2001 league title, and Leixoes 2001/2002 Cup final. Incidentally both situations in the 3 seasons (1999/2000 to 2001/2002) that the portuguese referees were drawn, instead of nominated 😅
Aves winning the Portuguese cup a few years ago springs to my mind, defeating mighty Sporting 2-1 in the final. And were denied participation in Europe the season after.
Ipswich Town winning the Football League title in 1961-62, their first ever season in top-flight football and still the only team to do so on debut (if the inaugural season isn’t taken into account). Worthy of being an honourable mention for sure.
Don't forget The UEFA Cup in 81 as well!
I always liked those Wigan teams around that time from the intro.
great video idea, that said, I appreciate that a human went to the effort of constructing it.
Feel like Zambia AFCON win deserve more than an honourable mention🙂
I was on holiday in Greece as a 9 year old during the euros. It was wild for me then, never mind if I was older
Just to reiterate the craziness of Leicester winning the league, in the season before, their manager Nigel Pearson ranted at a journalist about how they were an ostrich for having their head in the sand. Having worked in a bookies at the time, I can assure you we were offering odds of 1000/1 that an ostrich would be in charge of Leicester City next. While it can be agreed it was purely a bit of a joke, the fact the odds offered suggested it was FIVE TIMES MORE LIKELY that an actual ostrich would be in charge of a Premier league team rather than them winning the league still makes me laugh to this day.
22:05 NEVER expected to see the Mets in an HITC Sevens video
Very interesting video.
In 2017-18 Algerian Cup, 5th tier side CR Zaouia reached the Semi finals, losing only with a last second goal to the eventual winners.
In 2022-23, they reached the quarter finals, also losing 1-0.