5 biggest shocks in world football in 2017

Italy and the Netherlands not having tickets to the 2018 World Cup is one of the biggest surprises in the football world in 2017.

1. Italy and the Netherlands do not have tickets to the 2018 World Cup

Italy have become spectators at the 2018 World Cup after losing to Sweden in the two-legged European qualifying play-offs. This is the first time in 60 years that Italy has missed out on the world's biggest tournament. In Europe, the Netherlands also missed the train to Russia next summer. The Netherlands did not even have a play-off spot like Italy.

The reigning South American champions Chile also failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and the United States are all famous teams in their region but also failed to qualify for Russia next summer.

2. Iceland's first World Cup appearance

Iceland finished first in Group I of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers and qualified for Russia next summer. This was a surprise because Iceland is a small country with a population of only 335,000 people. They became the country with the smallest population to qualify for the biggest football tournament on the planet. The previous record was held by Trinidad & Tobago, who qualified for the 2006 World Cup with a population of 1.3 million.

Iceland also qualified for the EURO 2016 finals for the first time and made a strong impression with a 2-1 victory over England in the round of 16. In the quarter-finals, Iceland lost to hosts France with a score of 2-5.

3. Neymar moves to PSG for record fee

The 2017 summer transfer window saw some incredible deals. PSG spent a whopping 222 million euros to bring Neymar from Barcelona, ​​making the Brazilian star the most expensive player in the world. Neymar was worth about 2.5 times more than the previous record holder, Paul Pogba.

After Neymar's price drop, other deals of the transfer window also had equally crazy fees. Young talent Kylian Mbappe was loaned to PSG from Monaco with a buyout clause of up to 180 million euros. Even Ousmane Dembele, the player who only had 1 shining season in Dortmund's shirt, also joined Barcelona for 105 million euros.

4. Real Madrid successfully defended the Champions League title

Since its inception in 1992, the Champions League has been cursed with no team winning it twice in a row. There have been teams that have come very close to doing so, such as Ajax Amsterdam (champion 1994/95, runner-up 1995/96), Manchester United (champion 2007/08, runner-up 2008/09) but have failed to defend their Champions League title.

However, Real broke the curse when they won 4-1 against Juventus in the 2016/17 Champions League final. This was Real's second consecutive championship and third in the last four seasons. Clearly, Real deserves to be the champion of champions.

5. Benevento breaks MU's sad record

It is common for new players to play poorly in the top leagues, but it is rare for them to play as badly as Benevento. Benevento lost all 14 of their first matches in Serie A 2017/18. That is the record for the team with the worst start in history in the top 5 European leagues. Previously, MU was the team holding this sad record with a streak of 12 losses at the beginning of the 1930/31 season. It lasted for 87 years until Benevento... broke it.

According to Bongdaplus