NICE, France — 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.
David Cameron stepped down as British Prime Minister after the result of last week’s referendum that unsettled the country and the whole of Europe. England coach Roy Hodgson did the same after overseeing yet another humiliating campaign in a major tournament.
“Now is the time for someone else to oversee the progress of this young, hungry and extremely talented group of players,” Hodgson said. “They have been fantastic.”
The England fans who jeered the team off the field at halftime and fulltime at the Stade de Nice will likely have a different opinion. This unexpected result for the country that invented the game came two years after England exited the World Cup in disgrace at the group stage.
For a soccer nation of England’s standing, its record in major tournaments is woeful. The English have still never won a knockout-stage game abroad in the European Championship in eight attempts and haven’t won a match beyond the group stage of a major tournament since 2006.
This defeat will probably go down as England’s biggest humiliation since losing 1-0 to the United States in 1950 World Cup.
“It’s embarrassing for us,” Rooney said. “We know we’re a better team. You can’t explain it.”