Jun
17
European Championships history: Defending champions that have failed to go far in the tournament
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There has been much talk about Greece’s performance at the 2008 Austria-Switzerland European Championships. Greece are the defending champions who did not live up to expectations in terms of actually defending their trophy. After their loss to Russia in game 2, the champions will be going home eliminated from further competition in the quarter-finals. Many have been very critical of Otto Rehhagel’s squad for their recent failure especially after stunning the soccer world with their rise to the top in 2004. However, many of those criticizing Greece fail to note that other defending champions have had the same fate over the years. In this article, we take a look back in European Championships history to identify some of those failed champions.
France won the European trophy in 1984 at home. However, 4 years later, they did not even qualify for the finals as they failed to secure top place in the group which consisted of the Soviet Union, East Germany, Island, and Norway. Let us not forget, however, that France captured both the World Cup in 1998 and the European Championships trophy in 2000.
In 1992, Denmark surprised the soccer world by winning the Euro. I say they surprised everyone because the team did not even qualify for the tournament’s finals. Instead, they were selected to replace Yugoslavia which was not allowed to participate because of an ongoing war in the region. Denmark collected the players who were vacationing at the time and went on to capture the trophy. In 1996, Denmark were back to defend their title but they failed to make it passed the group stage.
Germany is another team that has had to endure the curse of the defending champion. In 1996, Germany captured the European trophy and went on to qualify for the same tournament in 2000 earning the right to defend their title. It was not meant to be, however, as Germany failed to move passed the group stage of the competition losing to Portugal and England.
The most recent addition to this list is Greece who failed to move past the first round this year. What I am trying to say here is that it is not unlikely to see a defending champion fail in their attempt to defend their title. European championships are spaced 4 years apart and this is enough time for many teams to change both in losing and adding valuable players; of course, there are many factors that decide the outcome of a soccer game such as injuries, weather, and even card trouble for some. Failure is not a good thing but some times, it is unavoidable. Get over it!