As we come to the end of this calendar year, football fans have had a veritable buffet of exciting contests in Europe. Football is a game in which the underdog is often able to beat a superior team on their day, and upsets are the order of the day in the second half of the European season as the top clubs have to rotate their squads – mostly on account of fitness issues.
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The Premier League title was won by Leicester City, who were rank outsiders at the start of the season. Therefore, many of their victories in their historic season hold less value as upsets – they led the league table from January without giving it up after that.
Therefore, we need to look to other competitions for such matches of note. The following is a list of the 5 most unexpected results from European football this year:
#5 Wolfsburg 2-0 Real Madrid - UEFA Champions League 2015/16
Wolfsburg are definitely one of the most dangerous opponents for any team on the planet on their night, and they proved their credentials with a 2-0 victory at home against Real Madrid in the quarterfinal stages of the Champions League last season.
Real Madrid went into the game on the back of a morale-boosting victory at the Nou Camp during the weekend, but the encounter had taken its toll on the fitness of its star forwards. Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema struggled to find any kind of momentum, and they encountered some harsh luck with decisions during the game as well.
However, Wolfsburg truly deserved the victory, particularly due to their second goal scored by Maxi Arnold after some wonderful build-up play. The first goal came off a penalty earned by Andre Schurrle in the 18th minute. Star left back Ricardo Rodriguez sent Keylor Navas the wrong way with his shot to rouse the Volkswagen Arena, and the cheering went on till the final whistle in what was to be a famous victory.
#4 Wales 3-1 Belgium – UEFA Euro 2008
Wales provided football fans the perfect underdog story of the Euros this summer. Despite being grouped in a relatively tough pool with England, Slovakia and Russia, they topped it with 6 points from 3 games despite losing to England in their second group stage game.
Their best game of the tournament was in the quarterfinals against Belgium, who led the FIFA rankings at that time. Belgium were on a high of their own, having won 3 consecutive games (the last one being a 4-0 thumping of Hungary). Eden Hazard looked to have returned to form after Chelsea’s poor Premier League campaign and most critics wrote off Wales before the start of the game.
Belgium even managed to take a 1-0 lead through a wonderful long-range strike from Radja Nainggolan in the 13th minute, but Wales regrouped to claw their way back into the game. Ashley Williams scored their equaliser in the 30th minute despite playing with a shoulder injury.
A wonderful moment of trickery from forward Hal Robson-Kanu allowed him to beat Belgium’s stand-in right back Thomas Meunier and give Wales the lead in the 55th minute. Despite dominating possession, Belgium were blunt up front as Romelu Lukaku was just not able to link up with Kevin de Bruyne and Hazard.
The game was sealed by substitute Sam Vokes’ header, and Chris Coleman's side set up a semifinal clash with Portugal.
#3 Real Sociedad 1-0 Barcelona - La Liga 2015/16
Real Sociedad have an enviable home record against the Catalan giants, having stayed unbeaten against Barcelona for the last 8 years in league clashes at the Anoeta Stadium. Their most recent encounter saw Sociedad keep the jinx intact, as they gave Barcelona the jitters in their title race with Real Madrid which went down to the wire.
Sociedad secured an early lead through Mikel Oyarzabal’s early header – the winger beat in-form Gerard Pique in the air before placing an unstoppable shot into Bravo’s top right corner. Messi had a trio of decent chances in the game, but Sociedad goalkeeper Rulli was in imperious form and kept out all three shots.
Iniesta had a couple of solid tries himself, but Sociedad did not break shape and held on until the final whistle to keep Barcelona scoreless for the first game in three months since their 0-0 draw against Espanyol on 2nd January 2016.
#2 Midtjylland 2-1 Manchester United - UEFA Europa League 2015/16
The Red Devils did not go into this game in the best run of form, as they were stuttering severely under Louis van Gaal. However, they were expected to at least see off their Danish challengers away from home, but the manager decided to field a rather weakened lineup. They were dealt a blow in the warm-up as well when de Gea met with an injury. Sergio Romero stood in for him.
The mercurial Memphis Depay was included, and he did produce a goal from close range in the 37th minute off a Jesse Lingard cross that the Midtjylland defence should have cleared away easily. The hosts were playing confidently in front of their home fans, however, and got back level through Sisto’s 44th-minute goal, albeit the fact that it went into Romero’s goal through a Chris Smalling deflection.
The pressure proved too much for United, who conceded their second when substitute Onuachu muscled Juan Mata away from the ball before striking it into the net from 18 yards out. The result left United with one of their most humiliating results in recent times.
#1 England 1-2 Iceland - UEFA Euro 2016
In this most earth-shattering result of the calendar year 2016, Iceland shocked England on their way to a quarterfinal finish at the Euros. Before the start of 2016, Iceland had a FIFA rating of 366.76 and were not ranked even in the top 30 nations of the world. With a population of 330,000, they do not boast a competitive pool to pick from, either.
Their fairytale run at the Euros included the scalps of England, and Austria, the latter of whom they beat by a convincing 2-1 margin in their final group stage game. Their draw with Portugal was the Kickstarter, and they went into their round of 16 clash against England full of confidence. England had messed up their chances in the buildup, but nearly all the critics still backed them to win the encounter.
Rooney opened the scoring with a penalty in the 5th minute. However, Iceland fought back, and they capitalised on an error by Kyle Walker off Aron Gunnarson’s throw. Ragnar Sigurdsson finished off the chance from close range. The underdogs got a second through Sigthorsson in the 18th minute, and defended their lead through the course of the game against a rather blunt English side on the night.
