Remembering England’s Last Meeting With Iceland & a Footballing Nadir

In case you weren't aware, dear reader, not everyone at 90min towers is from England. We have representation from outside these borders. Hence why the subject of the content that you're about to get stuck into is met with shudders, as well as absolute f-----g hysterics depending on who you ask.

England vs Iceland. Euro 2016 round of 16. Total and utter humiliation.

Heading into the 2020 Nations League with a squad brimming full of youthful exuberance, eye-catching talent and fronted by a manager who is willing to let those traits sing, England are suddenly an exciting side.

How fitting, then, that we cast our minds back four years when all of the optimism surrounding the current England fold hadn't even begun. Back we go to a wretched 90 minutes of football that plunged a once great footballing nation into the very pits of sporting failure.

Good lord, that was a rancid, putrid day.

Not, however, for the glorious nation of Iceland. A country with roughly the same population as Bradford, who in a few short days won over the hearts of so many across Europe.

Their story is quite remarkable.

But anyway, forget all that. Let's talk England.

England went IN FRONT. They were actually WINNING the game.

After those four (decent) minutes, it all came tumbling down. Raheem Sterling won the penalty, Wayne Rooney converted it, and then the fun stopped. Not even a minute later, Iceland were level pegging.

A trademark long throw in - something Heimir Hallgrímsson's side used to great effect - caused havoc in the disorganised England defence, with Ragnar Sigurdsson bundling home from close range. Hallgrímsson, by the way, who is a dentist when he's not masterminding European Championship wins.

13 minutes later, England were cut through like a hot knife through already melted butter. Iceland pinged the ball between each other in almost casual fashion, as static Lions stood in anticipation for someone else to stick a leg in. The ball was tapped on to Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, who calmly slotted beyond Joe Hart.

Except it was worse than that. Hart, who had been in pathetic form throughout the tournament, let the Nantes striker's effort squirm through his Kepa-esque fingers, just as he had done with Gareth Bale's free-kick. We'll ignore his positioning for Russia's goal this time.

The first half trudged along, with Roy Hodgson's side mustering only efforts from distance. Woeful, desperate efforts from distance, I hasten to add.

Jack Wilshere was brought on at half time for the dire Eric Dier, but nothing changed. In fact, Iceland had the better chances as the Three Lions continued to have pop shots from distance. The performance was superbly summed up by Sigurdsson being allowed to produce an overhead kick in the six-yard box, one Hart was fortunate enough to have struck straight at him.

Nothing changed. It was the same turgid and unimaginative England in each and every minute of the match. Iceland, of course, were superb. 1000% worthy winners of the tie, and demonstrated all the traits their much-favoured opponents sorely lacked, or never had in the first place.

Seeing Hart charge forward for the final corner of the game (taken by Harry Kane obviously), was the shop-bought icing on the 30-day old mouldy cake that you forgot was in the cupboard. Dele Alli's flaccid attempt to head the ball being the decorative Smartie since you forgot to buy cherries.

Slumping to the floor in perfect synchrony with the humiliated supporters in the stadium and watching back at home on the tele, England's Euro 2016 journey was over. Over by Iceland.

Iceland.

What a day. When technology advances to the point where we can remove memories from our minds forever, there is no point deleting this particular sequence of events. Why? Because those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. That and the fact that we will be reminded of it by every non-English football fan until the end of time anyway.

Roll on Iceland in the Nations League, so we can be told about Monday 27 June 2016 all over again.

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