British student Jordan Donnellan, 19, had got 11 out of 11 matches right and was waiting for the last three results to come through at his local pub.

Then Atletico Madrid beat Real Betis 2-0 in Seville and Stoke beat Aston Villa at Villa Park 4-1, and his final bet was for Juventus to beat Catania in the Italian top league.

A group of around 25 friends and his family cheered as Carlos Tevez scored for Juve and the party went wild at the final whistle, thinking his £1 accumulator had netted him a million.

Mr Donnellan naturally went straight to his betting shop to collect his winnings. 

He says an assistant checked the results, offered him a hug and said he would have to return as the shop did not have that amount of cash on the premises.

But when he returned three hours later, his mistake had been spotted.

He had filled out a Weekend Result Rush - which requires both teams to score, and offers higher odds - instead of the Weekend Quickslip form he thought he had used.

The depressed student said: "I genuinely believed I was going to win £1m. We were jumping around and celebrating."

Ladbrokes spokesman David Williams said: "It's rather like buying a UK lottery ticket then spotting that your numbers have come up on the Australian Lotto."