The 10 greatest underdog teams in football history

#9 Iceland, Euro 2016

Iceland's Euro 2016 victory over England was a classic underdog win

When Iceland were drawn in a group with highly fancied Portugal, and fellow underdogs Austria and Hungary at Euro 2016, few observers thought they could make it out of the blocks.

That theory was blown apart when they managed to claim a draw against Portugal in their opening match – much to the chagrin of Cristiano Ronaldo, who ranted against their “small mentality” and defensive tactics in a post-match interview.

A draw with Hungary followed to give Iceland a decent chance of escaping the group, but they still had to face a David Alaba-led Austria side who hadn’t quite kicked into second gear. Iceland took an early lead, only to let in an equaliser, but the game would end when the Icelanders caught Austria on the break, allowing Arnor Traustason to score the winner.

That set up Iceland for a clash in the last 16 against England – one of the pre-tournament favourites – and surely they’d lose, right?

Instead, in a classic underdog performance, Iceland managed to out-play, out-fight, and out-think the Premier League’s stars for the full 90 minutes, winning 2-1 despite conceding an early penalty.

The Icelandic underdogs finally came unstuck in the quarter-finals against hosts France, but not without a fight – scoring two against the French even after going 4-0 down. The side has since gone on to qualify for the 2018 World Cup – where they’ll go in looking to cause another upset like they did two years ago.