There’s one particular example of a team winning the European Championship against all the odds in recent memory. Euro 2004 in Portugal featured sixteen teams and Greece were regarded as a rank outsider to claim an overall triumph, although a win over the hosts in the opening match announced the underdogs as contenders and a victory in the final against the host nation saw them crowned European champions.
The Greeks were a 100/1 chance and their defensive brand of football wasn’t taken completely seriously until a 1-0 win over favourites France at the quarter final stage illustrated that these were serious players who were particularly hard to beat.
Similarly, in 1992, Denmark pulled a rabbit out of the hat to win in Sweden when they weren’t even supposed to be in the tournament. The exit of Yugoslavia for political reasons saw the Scandinavians come in through the back door and leave out the front door holding the trophy.
Denmark weren’t quite the price of Greece that year and it’s worth noting that there were only eight teams to start off with, although 18/1 in an eight-horse race served to show that anything can happen in knockout football.
At Euro 2012, Spain obliged as favourites to win in Poland and Ukraine, with La Roja a 3/1 chance alongside Germany before going through to the final where they dished out a 4-0 thrashing to Italy in the final.
It’s amazing to think that Spain were as big as 6/1 to win Euro 2008 four years previously, although it should be noted that this was a team who had perennially underachieved in major tournaments at this time.
Luis Aragones finally got a tune out of the national team, with an opening victory against Russia laying the foundations and David Villa spearheaded a team that featured the mercurial Xavi as well as Marcos Senna.
Four years before that Greek success, France rode on the crest of a World Cup-winning wave to land Euro 2000 success, with Les Bleus obliging at odds of 11/2 despite the fact that Netherlands were the tournament favourites.
Indeed, the French were well-backed to win the Euros that year and the same applies to Germany at Euro 1996 where the favourites went all the way in England, despite needing penalties to beat the host nation at the semi-final stage.
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The biggest surprise package of that particular tournament was the Czech Republic who really announced themselves on a European stage by reaching the final of Euro 1996 after beating France on penalties in the semi-final.
The Czechs were 80/1 to win a tournament which happened before the internet became widely available, so turnover levels on the outright market and match markets were a tiny amount of what they have now become.
Indeed, a Patrik Berger penalty in the final took the Czechs to within 17 minutes of overall glory, before Oliver Bierhoff scored twice to seal things for the tournament favourites.
