NICE, France (AP) – After voting to leave the European Union last week, the English left the soccer European Championship in similarly surprising fashion on Monday in what will go down as their most embarrassing loss in a generation.
Iceland, whose population of 330,000 makes it the smallest nation ever to compete at the tournament, pulled off one of the biggest shocks in European Championship history by beating England 2-1 in the round of 16.
“This is probably going to be a day that we will talk about for the rest of our lives,” said Iceland joint-coach Heimir Hallgrimsson, who runs a dentist surgery in his spare time.
Iceland’s players danced and sang in front of their joyous fans after earning the biggest victory in their small nation’s history. Next up is an even bigger challenge – host nation France on Sunday – but nothing may top beating England, a team Iceland always used to support in major tournaments.
As for England, the defeat meant more humiliation on the big stage and surely another inquest into why a team of supposedly talented players failed again.