The 10 greatest underdog teams in football history

#8 Monaco, 2016/17 Champions League and Ligue One

The likes of Kylian Mbappe and Tiemoue Bakayoko helped Monaco to the Champions League semi-finals

The Champions League is usually the playground of the mega-rich; Europe’s most powerful clubs competing for its most coveted prize. The likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Juventus are the sort of teams who compete for it.

Since an injection of Qatari money, Paris St. Germain have wished to gain a spot at that table, but in 2016/17 it was another French side – Monaco – who crashed the party despite spending little in the preceding summer.

Monaco only finished 3rd in 2015/16’s Ligue One, so they had to qualify for the group stages by beating Fenerbahce and Villareal, but it was during the group games where their quality really came to light.

They defeated Tottenham Hotspur twice and Bayer Leverkusen once to win the group and qualify for the knockout stages, where they went on to upset Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund before Juventus ended their dream in the semi-finals.

But through this run, players like Kylian Mbappe, Thomas Lemar, Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy went on to become household names despite being nobodies prior to the 2016/17 season.

Monaco even won Ligue One, holding off the massive challenge of Paris St. Germain there too. With the team now being broken up entirely, Monaco’s 2016/17 side stands as a classic underdog story.