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Football is one of those rare top-level sports in which upsets are quite common and every year, there are some results that completely defy the odds.
Underdogs often rise above the handicap of playing against far better opponents and put in a performance that comes as a bit of a shock to everyone. On the other hand, smaller clubs with a smartly assembled team of talented players can upstage more fancied opponents as well.
Very much like the past years, 2017 has also seen its fair share of upsets and here is a look at the top 5 of the biggest upsets that shook the footballing world.
#5 Plucky Monaco beat Pep Guardiola's City
When Manchester City was drawn against Monaco in the Round of 16 of the 2016-17 season of the UEFA Champions League in February earlier this year, there was widespread belief that the English club would easily win the two-legged tie.
However, Monaco's talented bunch of players, such as the likes of Radamel Falcao, Kylian Mbappe, Bernardo Silva and Thomas Lemar, among others, put on a show that overwhelmed Pep Guardiola's squad
In the first leg at the Etihad, the two sides produced an end to end 8 goal game which City won 5-3.
Monaco led 2-1 at half-time through goals from Falcao and Mbappe. Falcao then missed a penalty in the 50th minute and thereafter City fought back through a Sergio Aguero goal in the 58th minute. Falcao scored again to make it 3-2 in the 61st minute but the game ended 5-3 to City, as the players rallied to score 3 goals in a 12-minute spell.
Monaco might have lost the first leg but they had 3 away goals and that is what eventually lead them to victory.
In the second leg, at Monaco, the hosts completely dominated Manchester City and went up 2-0 in the first half through goals form Mbappe and Fabinho. Leroy Sane pulled one back in the 71st minute to make it 6-5 on aggregate to City and if they had held on they would have gone through.
However, midfielder Tiemoue Bakoyoko completed the massive upset by scoring the third in the 77th minute and making it 6-6 on aggregate. Monaco held on for the rest of the game and went through to the quarter-finals on the away goals rule.
#4 Crystal Palace push Arsenal deeper into the abyss
2017 was the first year in Arsene Wenger's 21 year reign at Arsenal that the club could not qualify for the UEFA Champions League and it was the game against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in April that sealed the Gunners' fate. It almost ensured that they would end outside the top 4 in the English Premier League for the first time in 20 years.
However, the reason why it is one of the biggest upsets of the year is that Palace themselves were in the middle of a relegation battle and had appointed Sam Allardyce to mastermind one of his famous escapes for the club.
In the summer night at Selhurst Park, Palace played out of their skins and shook Wenger's squad. For context, Palace had not beaten Arsenal at home since 1979 and Arsene Wenger's side were widely expected to win, having beaten West Ham in the previous game.
Palace were straight off the blocks in this London derby and went up through former Spurs player Andros Townsend in the 17th minute. Arsenal laboured through the rest of the game and failed to create much before Yohan Cabaye's sumptuous long-range effort found the back of the net in the 63rd minute.
The rout was complete 5 minutes later after Palace won a penalty and Luka Milivojevic slotted it home to make it 3-0. Arsenal could not have a shot at the Crystal Palace goal in 90 minutes as the home team completed one of the biggest shocks of the year.
#3 Trinidad & Tobago end USA's World Cup dream
The United States have been a regular fixture in the World Cup since 1990 and it was widely expected that they would easily qualify for next year's tournament in Russia as well. In the qualifying rounds, the team started off by losing to both Costa Rica and Mexico, which led to Jurgen Klinsmann's sacking. In the end, it all boiled down to the return leg against Trinidad & Tobago at home in October this year.
They had beaten the opponents 2-0 away from home earlier and hence, most believed that the USA would win the tie with ease. However, things went totally against the script. In the 17th minute, Oscar Gonzalez's own goal gave Trinidad & Tobago an unexpected lead and twenty minutes later, Alvin Jones put them up 2-0 with a thunderous strike.
The USA looked completely inept and incapable of penetrating the opponent's defence despite the high stakes and even though their star midfielder, Christian Pulisic, made it 1-2 early on in the 2nd half, the home team struggled to create much.
It was, without a doubt, one of the biggest upsets of the year and condemned the US for an unexpected ouster. They could still have qualified or made it to the playoffs if results elsewhere went their way, but upsets in two other games crushed their World Cup dreams. Mexico lost 3-2 to Honduras and then Costa Rica's 2-1 defeat at the hands of Panama put them completely out of contention.
#2 Real Madrid's shock at Girona
When the current La Liga and Champions League holders Real Madrid went to play newly promoted Catalan club Girona back in the end of October, there was only one result that everyone expected: a rout in favour of the Los Blancos and it looked like the case when Madrid went up in the 12th minute through a superb counterattack that ended with Isco scoring the goal.
It was business as usual but Girona showed that they weren't there to roll over and slowly gained control of the game. They went to half-time 1-0 down but after the restart, they looked rejuvenated and equalised through Cristhian Stuani in the 54th minute
They took the lead 4 minutes later through Portu and suddenly, the game turned on its head. Girona had hit the post on two occasions in the first half but in the second half, they dominated the game and held off the wave after wave of Real Madrid attacks to preserve their lead.
The game was being played at a time when calls for Catalan independence were at a fever pitch and there have been mass demonstrations all across Girona. Although there was no trouble, it gave the game an extra edge.
#1 Italy fail to qualify for the WC
Italy is one of the world's greatest footballing nations, having won the WC 4 times and since 1962, they have qualified for the biggest tournament in football every single time.
Italy's presence in the World Cup was something people take for granted and even though they had to play a qualifier against Sweden to qualify for Russia, no one quite realised that the unthinkable was going to happen. Italy were going to play the second leg at home and it seemed that everything was stacked in their favour.
In the first leg at Gothenburg, Sweden, the Italians worked hard throughout the game but eventually lost 1-0, through midfielder Jakob Johansson's 61st-minute goal. All was not lost of course and a good result at the San Siro in Milan would have been enough to overturn the deficit.
However, Italy simply could not find a way through the opponents' defence and despite the huge torrent of Italian attacks that came their way, the Swedish defended resolutely to preserve their precious one-goal lead. Once the game ended, as the realisation set in that they were not going to the World Cup, most of the Italian players slumped to the ground and came to terms with the biggest shock result of the year.
