adminCHANTILLY. — Opportunity knocks for Iceland and potential disaster looms for Roy Hodgson’s England in their David-and-Goliath last 16 clash at Euro 2016 soccer finals tonight.
The match kicks-off at 9pm.
For Iceland, whose population of 330 000 makes them the smallest country to have qualified for a major tournament, the game in the Mediterranean city of Nice brings the chance to score one of the biggest upsets in football history.
For England — haunted by 50 years of hurt since their 1966 World Cup triumph — and their under-pressure manager Hodgson, it represents the wobbliest of tightropes.
“I am not even contemplating going out to Iceland,” Hodgson told reporters in Chantilly, north of Paris, prior to the game.
“As far as I’m concerned, I will prepare the team for Iceland and we will do the best we can to win the game.
“Then after the game we will either be heavily criticised as we haven’t won it or with any luck, if we played well and won the game, people will maybe say we did well.” A quarter-final at Stade de France against the Republic of Ireland or hosts France awaits the victors, but England’s group-stage travails means they cannot afford to look that far ahead.
Held 1-1 by Russia in their opening game, they edged Wales 2-1 courtesy of a stoppage-time Daniel Sturridge goal, only for a 0-0 draw with Slovakia to condemn them to the more daunting half of the tournament draw. — AFP.
Online Reporter