1. Wales – 1958
Getting to the semi-finals of the Euros isn’t Welsh football’s only notable achievement. The small nation went all the way to the quarter-finals of the 1958 World Cup before narrowly losing 1-0 to eventual winners Brazil. Special mention too for Northern Ireland, who also reached the last eight of that competition, before being beaten 4-0 by France.
2. Poland – 1974
Few people gave Poland much hope in the qualifiers, let alone the competition proper. However, they famously stunned an England side that had been champions eight years previously at Wembley, before finishing third at the tournament in West Germany having lost 1-0 to the hosts and eventual victors thanks to a 76th-minute Gerd Muller strike.
3. Belgium – 1986
While the Belgian side of 2016 ultimately underperformed, the same cannot be said for their 1986 counterparts. Despite only finishing third in their group behind Mexico and Paraguay, they advanced to the knockout stages, beating the Soviet Union and Spain before falling 2-0 in the semi-finals against a Diego Maradona-inspired Argentina.
4. Denmark – 1992
A wildcard entry following the expulsion of Yugoslavia, few people fancied the Danish side as potential winners of Euro ’92 having been dragged from their holidays to compete in Sweden. Yet with the talented likes of Peter Schmeichel and Brian Laudrup in their side, people were clearly unwise to underestimate the eventual champions.
5. Bulgaria – 1994
Bulgaria had never won a match in five previous World Cup finals, and they didn’t look like reversing that trend after losing 3-0 in their opening game against Nigeria. However, led by then-Barcelona striker Hristo Stoichkov, Bulgaria proceeded to go on a scarcely believable run. They knocked out holders Germany with a spectacular 2-1 victory enabled by a memorable Yordan Letchkov header. They eventually were beaten in the semi-finals by a Roberto Baggio-inspired Italy, but will nevertheless go down in history as comfortably the best-ever team the country has produced.
6. Czech Republic – 1996
Not a vintage tournament in terms of quality, which perhaps partially explains how the Czech Republic made it all the way to the finals before losing 2-1 against Germany thanks to Oliver Bierhoff scoring the first-ever golden goal. However, the Czechs did have some fine players in their side, including a then-little-known Pavel Nedvěd, who would move to Lazio on the back of his performances that summer and go on to become one of the top players in European football.
7. Croatia – 1998
Sure, the 1998 Croatia side had some extremely talented players including the above-pictured Davor Suker and Zvonimir Boban. And yes, they had already shown evidence of their potential with a quarter-final finish at Euro 96. But for a country of a little over four million people to reach the last four of the World Cup, in the process dumping out Germany — their conquerors from two years previously — still surely deserves to be up there among the biggest achievements in international football history.
8. South Korea – 2002
They may have benefited from a few questionable refereeing decisions, but getting to the semi-finals was still quite an achievement for a team that was more or less without stars or any real experience of playing at the top level – Anderlecht’s Seol Ki-hyeon and Perugia’s Ahn Jung-hwan aside, every other member of the squad at the time played their football in either Japan or Korea.
9. Greece – 2004
One of the biggest sporting upsets in football history, Greece scraped out of their group on four points, before successive 1-0 victories over France, Czech Republic and hosts Portugal saw them crowned unlikely champions at Euro 2004.
10. Turkey – 2008
Even now, many football fans would struggle to recognise the majority of the Turkey side that reached the semi-finals of Euro 2008, before losing 3-2 to Germany. Only six members of their 23-man squad played their football outside of Turkey at the time — Bayern Munich’s Hamit Altıntop and Newcastle’s Emre Belözoğlu were probably the two best-known members of the side. However, a 21-year-old Arda Turan — then of Galatasaray and now playing with Barcelona — announced himself on the international scene, scoring two goals and generally excelling at the tournament.
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