Since 1958, the European Championship has been held 16 times, and 10 countries have shared the 16 titles that have been decided, four of which are unpopular.
Do you know which 4 champions are unpopular?
Let's first look at which national team the 16 champions are:
Spain 3 times, 1964, 2008, 2012 (it is worth emphasizing that Spain is the only successful defense of the title so far);
Germany 3 times, 1972, 1980, 1996;
Italy 2 times: 1968 sides, 2020;
France 2 times: 1984, 2000;
In addition, six national teams have won one European Cup, the former Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece and Portugal.
The unpopular champions of the European Cup we want to talk about today are 4 of these 6 teams, according to the degree of unpopularity:
Danish fairy tales, unpopular index ★★★★★★
If the limit of the upset index is 5 stars, then Denmark's upset index for winning the European Championship is 6 stars – it completely breaks the limits of people's perception of unpopular predictions.
In Euro 1992, Denmark was not eligible for the final stage, but because of the outbreak of civil war in Yugoslavia, Denmark was lucky to qualify for the final as a substitute. In the group stage, they advanced as second in the group with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss, and played against the Netherlands in the semi-finals, eliminating the Netherlands on penalties to advance to the final, beating Germany 2-0 cleanly and winning the title in a fantastic way.
Danish mythology
Greek mythology, unpopular index ★★★★★
Greece's victory in Euro 2004 is considered another incredible miracle after the Danish fairy tale.
Greece won Euro 2004
After Rehágel created the Kaiserslautern miracle in the Bundesliga, he turned a group of tough Greek tough guys into disciplined predators. In the opening match of the group stage, Greece unexpectedly defeated host Portugal 2:1, and in the knockout stage, they defeated France, the Czech Republic and Portugal in three 1:0 respectively to win the European Cup. The tournament opened with Greece beating Portugal and ended with Greece beating Portugal to win the cup, which was full of drama.
Czechoslovakia, unpopular index ★★★★
In the 1976 European Championship, four teams from Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Germany and the Netherlands competed for the final championship, and among these four teams, Czechoslovakia was obviously the least favored. The hosts Yugoslavia, the 1974 World Cup winners, runners-up Germany and the Netherlands, all look to have a bigger chance than Czechoslovakia. However, Czechoslovakia eliminated the Netherlands 3:1 in the semifinals, drew with Germany 2:2 in the final, and defeated Germany 5:3 in the penalty shootout, eliminating the World Cup runner-up and World Cup champion.
Portugal, Unpopular Index ★★★
Portugal won Euro 2016, is that an upset? Portugal has Cristiano Ronaldo, Pepe, Carvalho, Quaresma and a bunch of players from major clubs, but compared with France, Germany, Italy, Spain, its record in the European Championship is not optimistic, and the performance of the final group stage also proves this.
Portugal team
After the group stage, Portugal was lucky to advance to the round of 16 as the third best group finisher; The odds for winning the title before the eighth final were 1 to 5.25 for France and 1 to 12 for Portugal; Portugal vs the host France, the official odds were 4.24, 3.04, 2.09 before the match, Portugal odds were twice as high as their opponent France, but the final result was Portugal defeating France 1-0 to win the cup. Prior to this, Portugal's role had been a second-rate European spoiler, and this title was both an upset and the best proof of Portugal's strength.
In terms of the results of a single match, the European Championship is a wonderful and unpopular game, but in terms of the winner of the final title, I think these four titles can be called unpopular, do you agree with this opinion?