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Embarrassment is nothing new to England but their Iceland humiliation tops it all

What have we just witnessed? It's hard to put into adequate words what Iceland have achieved. A n...



Embarrassment is nothing new t...
Soccer

Embarrassment is nothing new to England but their Iceland humiliation tops it all

What have we just witnessed?

It's hard to put into adequate words what Iceland have achieved. A nation of just over 300,000 (10% of their population are following them around the stadiums of France which says a lot) but they have just delivered a footballing Brexit to an England side full of household names.

On our Team 33 Iceland tournament special, Eidur Gudjohnsen's father Arnor had been quietly optimistic that his country would do reaonably well.

But surely no-one could have predicted not just beating England but being within 90 minutes of a semi-final in their first ever major tournament.

But what of England? 

This is a nation that has known varying degrees of embarrassment throughout most of their footballing history, as far back as 1950 when USA shocked them 1-0 in the World Cup and some in England thought it was a typo for 10-1.

Three years later, the Three Lions were given the run around by Ferenc Puskas and Hungary in 1953 in a era-defining 6-3 result at Wembley.

Our own Ireland famously beat them in Euro 88 thanks to Ray Houghton, while Croatia beat them home and away 20 years later as they missed out on Euro 2008 qualification. There have been other embarrassments in between those.

Iceland's Birkir Bjarnason, left, challenges for the ball with England's Wayne Rooney during the Euro 2016 round of 16 soccer match between England and Iceland, at the Allianz Riviera stadium in Nice, France, Monday, June 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

But Iceland's victory on a Monday night in Nice - and the manner in how it was achieved - is more glorious for the giant killer and more embarrassing for England because the Nordic nation were such outsiders.

Never having qualified for a tournament, they saw off a side of multi-millionaires whose reputations have been overblown by being homegrown players in the eye of the Premier League bubble.

Raheem Sterling was getting flak pre-match and joined Manchester City for £49 million. Yet aside from winning the penalty early on, he spent most of his time running down alleys and dead-ends as if the Road Runner had gone off script.

Wayne Rooney was being touted by some as a latter day Pirlo, pinging the ball around. But rather than running the show, Iceland ran rings around him instead.

And Joe Hart? Well, shampoo ads won't be on the agenda for a while you'd imagine.

And the scale of the humiliation is so stark that Roy Hodgson resigned as manager just minutes after the final whistle put an end to England's misery.

Match of the Day host Gary Lineker has often been critical of Hodgson and elements of English football on Twitter but tonight he defined things as we all see it, "The worst defeat in [England's] history. England beaten by a country with more volcanoes than professional footballers. Well played Iceland."

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