The longest spells of football teams not being ahead … but tasting glory | The Knowledge

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“Sheffield Wednesday went 330 (over with injury-time) minutes without being ahead (in normal play and on aggregate) in the playoffs, but managed to get promoted,” writes Colin Richardson. “Has any other team not had a lead in normal play for longer and won a competition?”

We open with Boris Cule and Ed Rostron, who both nominate Portugal’s achievement at Euro 2016: “They famously made it through their group with three draws, before scraping their way to the semis, winning once in extra-time and once on penalties,” recalls Boris. “They did lead until the 50th minute of their first group game against Iceland, but then never led a game until the 117th minute of their last-16 tie with Croatia, a total of 337 minutes without leading (not including injury time).” Ed adds that “Portugal played a total of 720 minutes in the tournament and only spent 73 of them in the lead”.

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