Iceland heroes leave England in turmoil
NICE: After voting to leave the European Union last week, the English left Euro 2016 in a similarly surprising fashion on Monday in what will go down as their most embarrassing loss in a generation.
No one thought they stood a chance, but Iceland stuck to their guns and pulled off one of football’s biggest shocks in European Championship history when they stunned abject England 2-1 on Monday, forcing their manager Roy Hodgson to quit in disgrace and sending the tiny nation into a quarter-final against hosts France.
Ragnar Sigurdsson and Kolbeinn Sigthorsson claimed their place in sporting history with the goals that secured the win on a hot, humid night in Nice for the Iceland, whose population of 330,000 makes it the smallest nation ever to compete at the tournament.
“They thought this would be a walk in the park,” said Sigurdsson of England’s attitude.
Although the soccer pedigrees of the two countries could not be more different, Iceland looked the better team in just about every aspect of the game and fully deserved to extend their dream run on their first tournament appearance.
After falling behind to a fourth-minute Wayne Rooney penalty they levelled almost immediately through Sigurdsson and struck again in the 18th with a shot by Sigthorsson.
A ponderous England never looked even remotely capable of finding a way back into the game and even at the end when they were reduced to launching long balls into the box, Iceland dealt with everything comfortably.
“It feels fantastic to come here as an underdog and perform in this way,” said Iceland joint-coach Lars Lagerback, who also claimed two wins and four draws against England in his days as Sweden manager.
Pundits were quick to rank England’s defeat alongside that against the amateurs of the United States in the 1950 World Cup but such a judgement conveniently overlooks the progress the Icelanders have made in recent seasons, not least in beating the Netherlands home and away to get to France in the first place.
The exit from the European Championship finals left fans of England — population 53 million and with the world’s wealthiest football league — reeling with a similar sense of desperation as the losing “Remain” camp of Britain’s ‘Brexit’ referendum.