So the criteria is pretty much champions league era, how far did the club go and how also a bit of perspective as well for good measure. Now for some people they'll look at the aforementioned Chelsea 2012 triumph as a shock considering the circumstances in which they came back against Napoli and went on overcoming Barcelona and Bayern but personally I wouldn't rank that at the greatest.
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| The Leeds team v Valencia source: www.ozwhitelufc.net.au |
Leeds United's run in 2000-01 is something like what we are talking about. Personally for me it's not the greatest shock to have occurred in the champions league but deserves a mention. They fell at the semi-final stage to a very good Valencia team that would go on to lose the final for the second year in succession. On route to that semi-final, Leeds had emerged through a first stage group of Barcelona, AC Milan and Beşiktaş. An equally tough second group followed which pitted them up against Real Madrid, Lazio and Anderlecht, they finished 2nd to progress to the last 8. Waiting in the last 8 was Deportivo and a 3-2 aggregate victory set up that semi-final. This was the last time Leeds have graced the competition as they finished 4th domestically which at the time didn't yield champions league qualification. What happened afterwards is well documented.
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| The near miss of Panathinaikos source: www.panathinaikos-press.com |
Another run worth mentioning occurred the following season. Greek side Panathinaikos took the competition by storm topping their first stage group ahead of Arsenal, Schalke and Real Mallorca. Home form was the key as they won all three home games which set up a second stage group with Real Madrid, Porto and Sparta Praha. The Greek side didn't lose any of their home games and finished 2nd in the group which was enough to progress to the last 8 which had Barcelona waiting. That quarter-final remains as Greece's best run in the competition since it was expanded to thirty-two teams. The first leg saw Panathinaikos win courtesy of an Angelos Basinas penalty. That second leg started exactly the way most Panathinaikos fans would've wanted, an early away goal. Cypriot striker Michalis Konstantinou, we in Ireland will have known all about him a few years after this, put Panathinaikos 1-0 up in the Camp Nou with a fantastic low shot and 2-0 ahead on aggregate. However the dream turned into a nightmare as two Luis Enrique goals and a Javier Saviola strike put Barcelona 3-2 ahead with half an hour remaining. One goal was all it took for Panathinaikos to go through to the semi-finals. It would've arrived had Sotirios Kyrgiakos' volley in stoppage time not gone millimeters wide of the post.
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| Chiotis after saving Michel Bastos' penalty source: Reuters |
However for me the biggest shock in the champions league era came in 2011-12. It was the same season in which Chelsea rallied to win the tournament but an even bigger shock occurred. They reached the group stage for only the second time in their history after wins over Skënderbeu Korçë and Slovan Bratislava in the qualifying rounds to set up a group that featured Zenit, Shakhtar Donetsk and Porto. Of course the team in question is Cypriot side APOEL Nicosia.
In the previous few years Cyprus had made the breakthrough into the lucrative group stage when Anorthosis Famagusta qualified in 2008 and APOEL followed suit the following year. This was the third occassion that Cyprus was represented in the group stage.
The group itself offered the opportunity to break further new ground. A home victory over Zenit followed by decent draws away at Shakhtar and Porto saw them on the front foot in the group. Their grip was tightened when they beat Porto in Nicosia. The victory arrived when Porto thought they had rescued a draw with a late penalty from Hulk but former Benfica man Gustavo Manduca won the game in stoppage time and the victory was secure. All that was needed was a draw away to Zenit in matchday five and APOEL would be through.
APOEL somehow got the draw that was needed. Zenit dominated the game as they too were looking to qualify but an impenetrable defense by the Cypriots was the reason behind APOEL getting the draw they needed. The final game with Shakhtar was lost at home but Zenit could only draw with Porto which meant not only did APOEL progress, they topped the group on the better head-to-head they had with Zenit. The significance of topping the group was to be shown in the draw.
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| Gustavo Manduca levels the tie against Lyon source: Reuters |
However a first leg defeat in France had them hanging on the hope that their good home form would come in handy once more. An early goal from Gustavo Manduca leveled the tie and the game after that swung both ways with Lyon having the better of the first half and APOEL the second. Extra-time beckoned and again nip and tuck as both sides faced the lottery of penalties. Goalkeeper Dionisios Chiotis earned cult hero status as he saved penalties from Alexandre Lacazette and Michel Bastos while APOEL converted all of theirs to secure passage to the last 8 of the champions league!
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| Esteban Solari converts the penalty at the Bernabéu source: AP |
Despite going out 8-2 on aggregate APOEL had created history. No other Cypriot side had gone as far as they did and its unlikely to be repeated anytime soon. What makes their run the biggest shock in the champions league for me, was the fact that they come from a league that at the beginning of that season was ranked 20th, lower than the leagues of Israel, Scotland and Belgium. We aren't talking about a team from the big four leagues or even the top 10 in Europe. 20th. To put that in today's terms it would be the equivalent of BATE Borisov reaching the quarter-finals, unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future but then again nobody saw APOEL reaching the last 8 that season.
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