🇪🇺 Euros memories: The ultimate underdog story | OneFootball

Cast your mind back to 2004, where possibly the greatest football underdog story unravelled before our very eyes.

Greece, a nation that had never won a single match at an international tournament before Euro 2004, arrived in Portugal and left as European champions. And they did it by overcoming Portugal (twice), France, Spain, and a superb Czech Republic side.

The Greeks had been to two tournaments previously, the 1980 European Championships as well as the 1994 World Cup. They had lost all six games, meaning the country had over 100 years of history as a national team without a victory at a tournament.

They entered their third tournament with odds of around 150-1 to win it and some members of the squad publicly admitted they were just dreaming of one, solitary victory.

What unfolded was one of the greatest achievements in the history of the game.

German coach Otto Rehhagel, formerly of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, took charge of the national team in August 2001, leading them to Euro 2004 qualification in remarkable fashion.

That qualification campaign could’ve been considered magical enough — Greece finished top of their group, above a Spanish side containing the likes of Carles Puyol, Xavi and Raùl.

How the qualifiers played out gave us all an insight into how the tournament finals would develop, as Rehhagel’s men achieved top spot by scoring just eight goals in their eight games and conceding just twice as they scrapped their way to six wins.

Euro 2004 played out in a similar vein; while Greece’s achievement was extraordinary, the football the team played was not exactly easy on the eye.

Rehhagel would set his team up in a 4-1-4-1 formation, solid in defence and attacking in transition. They were a low-block team, not one for the neutrals but it was effective.

The unlikely winners upset the apple cart right from the start in the opening game of the tournament.

Hosts Portugal, boasting the likes of Deco, Luís Figo and a certain Cristiano Ronaldo, expected a comfortable start to the competition on their own patch but Greece stunned the continent with 2-1 win.

Angelos Charisteas’s equaliser earned a point against Spain in the next game before they were dealt a shock of their own in the final group game, a 2-1 defeat to Russia.

But it didn’t matter, Greece progressed to the quarter-finals despite finishing on the same amount of points (four) as the Spaniards due to the fact they’d scored two more goals.

The first challenge of the knockout rounds presented a meeting with France, the Euro 2004 favourites in the eyes of many, packed full with the talents of Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry.

But Rehhagel set out a plan to mark Henry out of the game and his players executed to perfection, leaving that man again, Charisteas, to head home the only goal in the 65th minute. The defending champions were out.

History was made again in the semi-finals, as Traianos Dellas’ 105th-minute extra time winner against the Czech Republic was the only example of the ‘Silver Goal’ rule being used.

A historic goal that meant Greece, yes, Greece, would take part in the final of the European Championships.

It was a final filled with narrative. The Greeks were hoping to spoil the party against the hosts Portugal once again.

The fixture that kicked off the tournament also ended it and it did so with the same outcome.

Charisteas played the role of superhero one final time, with another header to crown Greece the champions of Europe.

A Werder Bremen striker scored the winning goal so players returning to the likes of Leicester City, Olympiacos, Bolton and Bologna could do so knowing they had toppled Ronaldo, Xavi, Zidane, Nedved, and Figo. Football has never produced a better underdog story.