The European Cup champion has fallen! Ranked 40th in FIFA with a total worth of 282 million euros, but missed the World Cup for 3 consecutive years

In the European World Cup preliminaries that ended on October 13, the veteran European team Greece lost 1-3 to Denmark in the away game. This defeat also confirmed that they would miss the 2026 US-Canada-Mexico World Cup two rounds in advance.

In the European Cup 21 years ago, Greece went from bad to worse and upset Portugal, led by Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo, in the final, miraculously winning the European Cup. Even though the current strength is not as good as the European Cup championship lineup led by Karagounis, Zagorakis, Dras, and Charisteas, the strength on paper is still not bad.

Currently, Greece ranks 40th in the world, with a total roster worth of 282 million euros. About half of the players play in the five major European leagues.

Forward Pavlidis, who plays for Benfica, is the most valuable, and left back Tsimikas, who is loaned to Roma by Liverpool, is also a solid starter in Greece. With such a lineup, it stands to reason that entering the World Cup after the expansion should not be a big problem.

In the European preliminaries of this World Cup, Greece is in the same group as Denmark, Scotland and Belarus. Since Denmark is the only player in this group, Greece originally had a chance to compete with Scotland for a play-off qualification.

However, in the first four rounds, Greece only defeated Belarus, the weakest team in the group, 5-1 in the first round, and was then double-killed by Denmark. The 1-3 loss to Scotland in the last round away game was undoubtedly the most fatal. After losing three consecutive games, Greece only accumulated 3 points in the standings. With two rounds left, Greece was 7 points behind Scotland and Denmark, so it was eliminated early.

This is the third consecutive time that Greece has missed the World Cup stage. The last time they participated in the World Cup was in 2014. At that time, they defeated Japan and Cote d'Ivoire, qualifying from the group and reaching the top 16. Since then, Greece has never been able to continue its mythology.

In fact, except for the myth of Greece winning the 2004 European Cup, their performance in the international arena has not been outstanding. The Greek team has only participated in three World Cups in history, and was eliminated in the group stage twice.

Perhaps winning the European Cup that year is really a myth that Greece can never replicate.