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The Football fans around the globe would never believe what happened in the year 2004 in the World of Football. Can you imagine a team other than Bayern Munich winning the German League? A Southern European Team Lifting UEFA Euro? A team winning Premier League Undefeated? A team from Portuguese League winning Uefa Champions League? Teams other than Real Madrid and Barcelona lifting La Liga. These things can happen once in a while, but what if it all happened in the same year? Guys, let me present before you the year 2004 in which a roller coaster of events happened and the football fans all around the world may not see these happening once again in a while
A handful of strange things happened in that season. The season saw the emergence of new managers, new records achieved, as well as some teams win their last league title till date. We would like to show you some of the best picks among them.
#5 Werder Bremen - German Bundesliga Champions
Yes, you read it right, the German champions for the season 2003-04 were the club which finished 11th last season (2017-18).
The club from the city of Bremen finished at the top of the league with 74 points from 34 matches which included 22 wins, 8 draws and 4 losses. Brazilian forward Ailton scored 28 goals for the champions and won the top-scorer award.
Former German midfielder and current sporting director of Werder Bremen, Frank Baumann was the captain of the squad. The team was managed by the club legend Thomas Schaaf, who spent 41 years at the club both as player and manager coming from the youth ranks. Unfortunately, this was the last top-flight title for Bremen, who is now only a mid-table club in the Bundesliga.
#4 Valencia FC - La Liga Champions
Another surprise. The Spanish champions for the 2003-04 season were the club from Mestalla Stadium.
Valencia finished at the top of the table with 77 points in 38 games including 23 wins, 8 draws and 7 losses. Runners-up FC Barcelona was 5 points shy of the top. Valencia was managed by the Spaniard Rafael Benitez, who went on to win the UEFA Champions League the next year with Liverpool FC.
The key members of the squad were Mista, Juan Sanchez Moreno, Ricardo Oliveira, Roberto Ayala and Mauricio Pellegrino. Mista was the top-scorer for Valencia with 19 goals in the league. Apart from the League glory, Valencia was also victorious in the UEFA CUP, which later came to be known as UEFA Europa League.
However, they were knocked out of the Copa Del Rey by Real Madrid which ended their hopes of a treble.
#3 Arsenal won the EPL Undefeated
The 2003-04 Season in Engish football saw something which is new to the League as Arsenal won the league undefeated. The former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger in a press conference before the start of the season 2003-04 made a bizarre claim that his side would go undefeated in the Premier League.
Even his players might have doubted the manager, but at the end of the season, Arsenal's stats were - Played 38, Won 26, Draw 12 and Lost nil.
That was an incredible achievement in the history of the Premier League as the team continued its unbeaten run to 49 games in the league. The team consisted of many modern-day greats such as Thierry Henry, Patrice Viera, Robert Pires, Dennis Bergkamp, Freddie Ljungberg to name few.
Arsenal finished with 90 points, 11 points ahead of runners-up Chelsea. They also won the FA Cup that year. In order to honour their unique achievement, the North London Club was presented with a Golden Trophy.
#2 FC Porto won the UEFA Champions League and Rise of Jose Mourinho
Another thing to add to this wonderful year! A team from outside the top 5 football leagues lifted the prestigious UEFA Champions League Title. Portuguese club FC Porto won the tournament after defeating AS Monaco 3-0 at the Arena Auf Schalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany in the finals.
To add to that, it announced the rise of one among the best managers in the coming decade, a young and vibrant Jose Mourinho, who joined Chelsea after the final. He later won the trophy with Inter Milan in 2010. They defeated Manchester United, Lyon and Deportivo La Coruna on the road to finals.
The only team from Portugal in the Group Stage, Porto kept the faith of fans from Portugal and ended up as the champions. The team couldn't boast of any presence of superstars in the team, it was more of teamwork and tactical mastermind of the Special One, Jose Mourinho.
#1 Greece Won the EURO 2004!!
The best of upsets took place after the club football ended and the whole world's attention went to Portugal for the European Championships. The Greece National team won its first major trophy as they beat the hosts Portugal 0-1 in the finals.
The tournament was rich in surprises and upsets: Germany, Spain and Italy were eliminated in the group stage, while France, the defending champions, were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Greece.
The Portuguese team recovered from an opening defeat against Greece to reach the final, eliminating England and the Netherlands along the way. For the first time in a major football tournament, the last match featured the same teams as the opening match.
Portugal was defeated by Greece with a goal from Angelos Charisteas. Greece's triumph was unexpected, considering that they had only qualified for two other major tournaments, the Euro 1980 and the 1994 World Cup, where they failed to win a single match. Greece captain and midfielder Theodoros Zagorakis was adjudged the Player of the tournament.
