1, 2006 World Cup in Germany-Ukraine-Top 8.
In 2006, Ukraine participated in the World Cup for the first time. Although they have a superstar like Shevchenko, they are still inferior to those strong teams in terms of overall strength. However, Ukraine, which participated in the World Cup for the first time, finally advanced to the group.
In the eighth final, Ukraine played Switzerland. Switzerland is also a dark horse. They beat France in the group stage and advanced first with a clean sheet. The showdown between dark horses was ultimately won by Ukraine on penalties.
Although Ukraine lost to Italy in the 1/4 final, as the dark horse who reached the 1/4 final for the first time in the World Cup, they are already very satisfied with their achievements.
2.20 14 Brazil World Cup-Costa Rica-Top 8.
In Death Squad, deus ex:
Group D of the 20 14 World Cup is regarded as the "group of death", in which Italy, England and Uruguay won seven World Cup titles.
After the draw for the World Cup in Brazil, three world champions, Italy, Uruguay and England, were placed in the same group. People are discussing which two of the three teams are qualified to participate in the competition. No one noticed that Costa Rica, which looked the weakest, became the first in the group, and they qualified from the group with two wins and one draw.
The first game was 0: 1 behind, and Costa Rica scored three goals to beat Uruguay.
In the second game against Italy, captain Ruiz headed the goal to help the team win a small ball. At this time, Costa Rica has locked the group first in advance.
In the last game, the 0-0 team drew with the British team.
In the final of 1/8, they beat Greece on penalties, which was the first time for the team to reach the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
14 final, they dragged the Dutch team led by Robben into the penalty shoot-out. Kroll, the Dutch substitute goalkeeper who appeared in the last minute of extra time, saved the penalty twice, and ended up in the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Costa Rica.
As early as 1990, Costa Rica, who participated in the World Cup for the first time, broke into 16, but it is obviously more difficult to break through the "group of death" and reach the quarter-finals. It is shocking that such a little-known Costa Rica should take the lead in breaking through the death group and breaking into the quarter-finals.
But their biggest star at that time was Ruiz navas, who later became a hit at Real Madrid, and not many people knew him at that time. After the World Cup, the team's main goalkeeper navas moved to Real Madrid and won the Champions League three times in a row.
3.20 10 The 4th World Cup in South Africa-Uruguay.
In the 20 10 World Cup, Uruguay narrowly defeated the host countries South Africa and France to win the first place in the group stage, and then successively defeated South Korea and Ghana to enter the semi-finals, but lost to the Netherlands 2-3 in the semi-finals, and finally lost to Germany in the third and fourth finals, and won the fourth place.
Although my ancestors were very rich and won two World Cups and two Olympic Cups (at that time, the Olympic status of football was the same as that of the World Cup), no one could have imagined that Uruguayan football, which had been sinking for many years, could actually reach the top four in the world. Then cavani and Suarez opened the golden age of Uruguayan strikers.
4. 20 18 Russia World Cup runner-up-Croatia.
Seeing this, some people may say, was Croatia a dark horse in those days? They are already very strong, including Manjukic, Pericic, modric and Rakitic.
But what I want to say is that the biggest basis for people to judge dark horses is whether their achievements far exceed people's expectations. Indeed, the Croatian team of 18 is good in strength, but people's greatest expectation is to qualify for the group and reach the quarterfinals at most. However, with its invincible tenacity and bursting state, Croatia became more and more brave and reached the final all the way.
In the group stage, they played steadily. Nigeria, Argentina and Iceland won in a row, first qualifying, and then eliminated Denmark and host Russia in two consecutive penalty shootouts.
The real test comes from the semi-finals. Thanks to the goals of perisic and Manjukic, they beat England 2-/Kloc-0-0 in extra time and arrived in Moscow for a decisive battle.
In the extreme match with France, the Plaid Army once equalized the score, but the lack of strength and luck (an own goal and a small ball) still made them fall short and lost to France 2-4.