5 teams who bucked the odds and went on to win the Champions League

#3 Chelsea, 2012

Chelsea won the Champions League in a highly-dramatic manner

Chelsea's spectacular against-the-odds win in 2012 is truly the highlight of the Champions league in this decade, especially with the way Barcelona and Real Madrid have dominated the competition. Considering how close the Blues came to winning it (at least reached the semifinals in 5 out of the previous 8 seasons), they finally won in the most unlikely of circumstances.

While the unbreakable side Jose Mourinho built during his time with Chelsea saw them dominate England, European glory always eluded them. However, when the 2011-12 season came around, the Blues were far from their best. The London side struggled to get going in the Premier League as they ran out of contention for Champions League spots sooner than they would have liked.

The subsequent sacking of manager, Andre Villas-Boas, led to barely any expectations for the business end of the season. Thus, when Chelsea lined up against a resurgent Napoli in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 after losing the first leg 1-3, everyone expected Napoli to get through with little difficulty.

However, it proved anything but otherwise, as the core of the previous decade, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Petr Cech and Didier Drogba dug deep under the calm leadership of caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo and performed a stunning comeback to win the match 4-1 in extra-time and seal progress to the quarterfinals.

Benfica were put away with a 3-1 aggregate in the quarters setting up a revenge match with Barcelona, after the pain of 2009 at Stamford Bridge where Andres Iniesta had scored in injury-time to seal the Catalans place in the final.

However, it was the Blues who had the last laugh with Lionel Messi continuing his goalless streak against the English side as Chelsea won 1-0 at home. This was followed by a classic at Camp Nou where Drogba and co. played with 10 men for most of the game and managed to draw 2-2, sealing their place in the final.

As Chelsea's experienced guard took charge of the situation, they once again dug deep in the final against Bayern Munich at the latter's home ground as Drogba scored a late header of his side's first corner of the match to extend the match into extra-time. Then, Petr Cech saved Arjen Robben's penalty and Drogba scored the final spot-kick in the penalty shootout to script one of the greatest underdog victories in football.

While it remains Chelsea's only Champions League win till date, it is one to stay as an inspiration for every non-favorite team in the competition.