The backlash following Cristiano Ronaldo's less-than-magnanimous comments after Portugal's shock 1-1 draw with Iceland have made it as far as the Icelandic training camp.
The Portuguese skipper was apparently in a terrible humour after the match and, somewhat controversially, described Iceland - who are in their first competitive international tournament ever, remember - as showing a "small mentality" and "are not going to do anything in the competition".
Now, when you consider that Ronaldo has a personal Twitter following which is more than 127 times greater than the entire population of Iceland, their participation in the frankly quite remarkable.
The fact that Iceland got a result against one of the teams who, on paper at least, are considered among the favourites to win the thing speaks to their determination and this afternoon they are still presumably basking in the glory of their country's biggest ever result in international football, despite Ronaldo throwing shade at them.
Kari Arnason was tasked with marking the Real Madrid forward in yesterday's match and didn't take too kindly to Ronaldo's overly-harsh criticism.
He’s a fantastic footballer but he’s not a gracious human being, The thing is we almost nicked the win so him saying we weren’t going for the win contradicts that. We got a draw and could have nicked it.
Obviously we’re not going to create as much chances as a fantastic team like Portugal but his comments are the reason why Messi is always going to be one step ahead of him. You wouldn’t expect Messi to say that. It shows we got under his skin. It was lovely to hear that.
And then the response only got better.
It makes it even sweeter when he’s a sore loser like that. He can say whatever he wants. He didn’t really get a chance. He got one and he couldn’t put it away. What can I say? Sore loser. Tough shit. What does he expect - for us to play like Barcelona against him? He fannies about and dives around.
Former Premiership player Herman Hreidarsson also joined in on the chorus of criticism towards Ronaldo's comments. Speaking to BBC Radio, he said:
He didn't fancy it on the day and he just got beaten up. It's petty in a way. He's a sore loser obviously. He thought he could have goals handed to him on a plate.
If he would have worked as hard as every Icelandic player, he wouldn't have had to say anything because I'm sure he would have got his rewards.
Never has a 1-1 draw seemed more like a victory.
