The 5 biggest shocks in world football in 2017.

The fact that Italy and the Netherlands failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup was one of the biggest surprises in world football in 2017.

1. Italy and the Netherlands did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

The Italian national team was eliminated from the 2018 World Cup after losing to Sweden in two legs of the European qualifying play-offs. This marks the first time in 60 years that Italy has missed out on the world's biggest tournament. In Europe, the Netherlands also failed to qualify for the World Cup in Russia next summer. The Netherlands didn't even qualify for the play-offs, just like Italy.

The reigning South American champions, Chile, also failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and the United States, all renowned teams in their respective regions, also failed to make it through the qualifying rounds to reach Russia next summer.

2. Iceland makes its first World Cup appearance.

In Group I of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, Iceland impressively finished first and secured their ticket to Russia next summer. This was a surprise, as Iceland is a small country with a population of only 335,000. They became the smallest country to qualify for the world's biggest football tournament. 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 subsequent quarter-final match, Iceland lost to host nation France with a score of 2-5.

3. Neymar moves to PSG for a record fee.

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

Following Neymar's exorbitant price tag, other transfers in the window also saw equally insane fees. Young talent Kylian Mbappe was loaned to PSG from Monaco with a buy-out clause of €180 million. Then Ousmane Dembele, who only had one stellar season with Dortmund, joined Barcelona for €105 million.

4. Real Madrid successfully defended their Champions League title.

Since its inception in 1992, the Champions League has been plagued by a curse: no team has won it twice in a row. Some teams have come very close, such as Ajax Amsterdam (winners in 1994/95, runners-up in 1995/96) and Manchester United (winners in 2007/08 and runners-up in 2008/09), but neither has successfully defended their Champions League title.

Nevertheless, Real broke the jinx by winning 4-1 against Juventus in the 2016/17 Champions League final. This was Real's second consecutive title and their third in the last four seasons. Clearly, Real deserved to be crowned champions of champions.

5. Benevento breaks MU's unfortunate record.

It's common for newly promoted teams to perform poorly in top leagues, but a disastrous start like Benevento's is rare. Benevento lost all 14 of their opening Serie A matches in 2017/18. This is a record for the worst start in the history of the top five European leagues. Previously, Manchester United held this unfortunate record with a run of 12 consecutive losses at the start of the 1930/31 season. That record stood for 87 years until Benevento... broke it.

According to Bongdaplus