Greatest Underdog Stories

  Heading into the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, France were the reigning world champions. Four years previously they had won their first ever World Cup and went into the subsequent edition hoping to retain the prestigious trophy. Les Bleus were placed in Group A alongside South American giants Uruguay, European outfit Denmark and first-time World ...

  There have rarely been encounters with as foregone conclusions as the 1950 World Cup final – at least that’s what the Brazilians thought. But then what happened on that fateful 16th July at the Maracana has become the stuff of legends for Uruguayans and a nightmare for Brazilians – not just for those who were alive to witness the ...

It is hard to find a fairytale in football that would trump Denmark’s triumph at the European Championship in 1992. The Danes had failed to qualify for the competition, but after Yugoslavia were disqualified from the tournament due to the Yugoslav wars, the Danes – runners-up in Yugoslavia’s qualifying group – were invited to take their spot in Sweden, completing ...

  In 1966, North Korea made their first appearance at a FIFA World Cup. A relatively new team against the giants of world football was, quite naturally, not given many chances of causing any trouble to their more established rivals. But there was a surprise in the offing. The Asian nation was placed in Group 4 in the tournament hosted ...

Sports possess an amazing power and enable us to be and to do so much more. It has the ability to help individuals become more than a solitary unit and work in tandem for something bigger and better, it helps galvanise a country for a common cause and, better still, it has the ability to give a sense of identity ...

The 1984/85 season was a remarkable one for the Italian league. It turned out to be a season when Napoli of Diego Maradona, Michel Platini’s Juventus, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge’s Inter Milan, Roma with the legendary Falcao, and Udinese of Zico were all beaten to the Scudetto by the provincial side Hellas Verona. The Gialloblu had never won the league title in ...

 There are fewer stories of triumphs as unprecedented as Greece’s European Cup win in 2004. The Greeks started their Euro 2004 campaign against Portugal in the opening game of the tournament. Being the hosts, Portugal were the overwhelming favourites against a side that had only previously played at the biggest stage twice – first at the Euros 1980 and then ...

“I hit a decent ball with some steam from 25 to 28 yards out. Somehow Joe Gaetjens got a piece of the ball. It was not a beautiful goal by any means.” It might not have been a beautiful goal, but there are fewer goals that shook the footballing world as much as that Joe Gaetjens strike did. These are ...