Iceland's march to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016 at the expense of England was undoubtedly one of the standout moments from an unforgettable summer of football.
Not least because it was a true underdog story that captured the hearts of anyone not aligned with England on the day, but because of the reaction it brought from Steve McClaren who was asked to cover the game live for Sky Sports. Easily one of the moments of the year.
Iceland played with a confidence and freedom that was a stark contrast to their last 16 opponents, and it was clear to all watching. This was an England team completely devoid of ideas and without the belief to go and grab the game by the scruff of the neck, and the Iceland players knew it.
Speaking to ESPN, Swansea's best player by an absolute country mile; Gylfi Sigurdsson, expressed his belief that the intense pressure from the British media is to blame for players that we see playing well for their clubs every week not being able to translate that form to the international stage.
Making it to France was a fantastic achievement for the [Iceland] team and the country but beating England in the last 16 was an incredible day.
It was a special feeling playing. We realised that after we drew against Portugal that we were going to do well in the tournament. We did think we would beat England. We knew from the Portugal game that we would do well against England.
We went into the tournament with no pressure, whereas on the other hand England come under incredible pressure from the media.
You can see that the players are playing for their clubs and country so there is a lot of media interest in the team and a lot of negative things being written. I think that reflects in their performances.
If you look into the qualifying rounds they won 10 games in a row but for sure there is a lot of pressure on them when it comes to the final tournament.
He's not wrong.
He's also certainly not the first person to publicly say it, and yey iy seems highly unlikely that it is going to change. The narrative is always the same;
-That last tournament was awful, the future is bleak, we need to rebuild.
-Hang on we've coasted through qualifying.. Maybe we are good?
-Look at how well these young English players are playing for their club, if the team is picked properly we'll beat anyone.
-Semi-final is the minimum result that is acceptable.
-These overpaid millionaires are a disgrace.
Rinse and repeat. Throw in a few smear stories about players smoking or drinking on nights out, and you've got the nation turned on the national football team. That's when the likes of Iceland, riding on a wave of pure love from their own fans for having exceeded their realistic expectations, can outperform teams that look better than them.
Sigurdsson knows it, the Iceland players knew it, and as the Premier League continues to grow bigger and bigger in terms of publicity and thus scrutiny, it's hard to see it changing anytime soon.
