🔝 The five biggest football shocks of 2024 😲

One of football’s great charms is its ability to keep us surprised and there has been no shortage of shocks in 2024.

As we prepare to turn the page and enter a new year, we’ve picked out five of the biggest shocks of the past 12 months.

🔝 The five biggest shocks of 2024 😲

Maidstone dump Ipswich out of FA Cup

God bless the FA Cup.

Football’s oldest domestic competition might have lost some of its lure of late, but it’s still a tournament that provides gripping drama.

National League South side Maidstone United were 2024’s giant-killers, as the sixth-tier side dumped out Championship high-flyers Ipswich Town at Portman Road.

A mammoth 98 places separated the sides in the football pyramid at kick-off, but counter-attacking goals from Lamar Reynolds and Sam Corne – the visitor’s only efforts on target – earned Maidstone an unforgettable 2-1 win.

The magic of the cup at its best.

Jurgen Klopp announces Liverpool exit

Jurgen Klopp stunned the football world when he announced his intention to leave Liverpool at the end of the 2023/24 campaign.

The German’s bombshell arrived in January, with Klopp admitting he was ‘running out of energy’ after almost a decade at Anfield. Klopp’s announcement caused widespread anxiety at Anfield as the tributes poured in for the club’s most successful manager of the modern era.

He added another trophy with League Cup success in February, as Virgil van Dijk’s header secured an extra-time win over Chelsea at Wembley. Klopp waved farewell to Liverpool having won eight trophies and with the Reds, undeniably, in a better place than the side he inherited.

Leverkusen seal Invincible German double

For a side famed for their ability to grasp failure from the jaws of glory, Bayer Leverkusen emphatically shed their bridesmaid tag in 2023/24.

Xabi Alonso masterminded a historic German double, as Leverkusen won their first-ever Bundesliga title and added the DFB-Pokal for good measure. Not content with winning a domestic double, Leverkusen did so without losing a single.

No side previously had ever completed a Bundesliga campaign without defeat, as Leverkusen’s ‘Invincibles’ ended Bayern Munich’s run of 11 consecutive titles.

Leverkusen embarked on an incredible 51-game unbeaten run across all competitions, before defeat to Atalanta in the Europa League final ended dreams of a treble.

Shock Champions League qualifiers send message to Super League advocates

The European Super League proposals were condemned far and wide when emerging several years ago, as Europe’s elite hastily withdrew plans for a closed-shop competition.

Last season saw several sides send a message to those who had been in favour of a Super League, as several surprise qualifiers secured their place in the Champions League.

Aston Villa, Bologna, Brest, Girona and Slovan Bratislava are all competing in the competition for the first time in the Champions League era. With a new format and several debutants, it’s been a refreshing campaign of Champions League football.

Manchester City meltdown has Guardiola scratching his head…

Manchester City have been so good for so long that the malfunctioning Mancunians have left everyone stunned.

The Citizens claimed a fourth consecutive Premier League title last season, a year on from treble success under Pep Guardiola.

This season, however, City have come unstuck. As we head into the new year, the champions are sixth and 14 points behind leaders Liverpool, having played a game more. Guardiola has overseen the worst run of his managerial career, with City winning just once in a 13-game period.

That run included six defeats in eight league games, while Guardiola’s exasperation came to a head in Europe in November. City squandered a three-goal to draw with Feyenoord at the Etihad and Guardiola attended his post-match interviews with visible marks on his face.

An unforeseen decline from the Blues has left Guardiola, literally and metaphorically, scratching his head.

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