Although judging by the scoreline, it seems to be a very easy game.

But in terms of the actual process, this is not the case.

Italy are far stronger than this scoreline suggests, and they have the strength to play in the quarter-finals.

But alas, Italy's bad luck was met by Spain.

If they had met the second place finishers in another group, such as England, the result could have been completely different.

In the final match of the round of 16, the Briton had an accident.

Before the match, the British generally felt that they were sure of winning and were even thinking about their opponents in the next round.

The reason for such optimism on the part of the British is simple, their opponent is Iceland.

In the eyes of the British, Iceland has a population of only 300,000, which is nothing more than a small country with a small geographical area, a harsh environment, and a weak football population base.

How can it be compared to my empire on which the sun never sets?

My empire sits in the world's largest league, and almost all of the international players come from wealthy families, how can it be compared to a civilian team like Iceland with no background?

Iceland have never made it to the main draw of a European Championship before, and it's only natural for the British to look down on them.

However, the strength of this Icelandic team is definitely not weak, and it can even be called the strongest national team in Iceland's history.

With this group of players as the team, the Icelandic team broke into the main round of the European Championship for the first time in history, and also won the quarterfinals of the European Championship.

Two years later, they made another breakthrough by storming out of the hellish European zone, making a historic break into the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and even holding Argentina to a draw in the World Cup, which is considered the favourites to win the tournament.

The world is just deceived by the name Iceland, and when they hear the word Iceland, they think they are soft persimmons to be kneaded, just like the British.

However, to despise this team, there is a price to pay!

At the beginning of the competition, the British were singing and dancing, all full of confidence.

In the third minute of the opening game, the Iceland goalkeeper made a mistake and brought down the British striker Raheem Sterling in the penalty area and gave the opponent a penalty.

Rooney scored in one fell swoop to make the score 1:0.

The opponent gave a big gift at the beginning, which made the British despise their opponent even more, and they all felt that there was no suspense in this game.

However, just two minutes later, Iceland swung in from the right and Odenadson nodded the ball in front of him, and Ragnar Sigurdsson volleyed the ball into the net.

Iceland quickly equalised and once again created a throw-in goal, the second time Iceland have scored a goal in this European Championship!

The British paid the price for their arrogance, and if they had studied the footage of Iceland's previous games, they would not have been so careless in their defense.

After the equaliser, the British did not realise the seriousness of the matter and still felt that the advantage was mine.

After all, it's only been 6 minutes now, and there's a lot of time left for them to attack.

So when the game resumed, the Englishmen pounced ferociously, intending to tear apart the opposition defence with their sharp attacks.

The English team has a strong forward lineup, with the front three of Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane, and Sturridge, and Jamie Vardy, Rashford and others on the bench.

However, the British's attack not only failed to score, but was also attacked by the opponent.

In the 18th minute of the first half, Iceland launched a quick counter-attack, Gilvi Sigurdsson sent a through ball, and Bertswalsson received the ball and crossed into the box.

At the critical moment, the goalkeeper of the British team, Joe Hart, made a mistake and saved Sibolsson's push into his own goal!

The score instantly became 1:2, and the British team fell behind!

This goal stunned the audience!

How could it be like this for British fans to look at their own goal and the goalkeeper who fell to their knees in front of the goal in disbelief?

How could we be so strong that we could be led by Iceland?

At the moment, they were already a little panicked.

Could it be that my British Empire is going to lose to tiny Iceland?

Afraid of what would come, the score fell behind, and the British launched a frantic counterattack.

However, the Icelandic team was united and stubbornly withstood their attacks after round.

Under the stubborn defense of the Icelandic team, these top scorers of the British team played abnormally, either firing anti-aircraft guns or shooting crookedly.

They had a total of 20 shots on goal and only four on target.

On the other hand, Iceland scored two goals with five on target despite only eight shots on goal.

Despite their dominance on the field, Great Britain were unable to convert 20 shots and 72% possession into a victory, and eventually had to cause a big upset at this European Championship - being eliminated by Iceland!

After the match, the media across Europe rushed to cover the event.

As a European-stirrer, the popularity of the British has always been poor.

If you can seize the opportunity to mock the British, all countries will not let it go.

As a result, after losing the game, the major media in various countries sprayed one after another, spraying the British team to the fullest.

It's not just the foreign media that are spraying, but the local media in the UK are also spraying, and even more ruthlessly.

Some of the more extreme fans even ran outside the FA's headquarters to protest and demand the resignation of England coach Roy Hodgson.

This is the highest salary of all 24 managers at this European Championship, which is higher than that of Spain's legendary coach Bosque.

With such a high salary, but doing such a stinky result, of course British fans are not happy.

Hodgson could not resist the pressure and soon announced his resignation.

Although the FA's salary package is attractive, it is too difficult to do.

He's made enough money and doesn't want to be scolded anymore, so let's take the money and run away!

While the British were scolding, there was jubilation on the Icelandic side.

The result was so shocking that even for the Icelanders, making it to the knockout rounds was something they would be proud of.

I didn't expect this group of young men from the national team to continue to create miracles and eliminate the powerful British team.

This has sent the whole country into a frenzy, and now every step forward is making history, and they are witnesses to it.

The outstanding performance of the Icelandic team Many European fans think of a team 12 years ago, which is a dark horse that is also from the grassroots and is not favored, his name is - Greece!

Could it be that Iceland got the same script that Greece got 12 years ago?

If that's the case, then Iceland's opponent in the next game will be dangerous!

Coincidentally, Iceland's opponent in the next round is the host France.

Britain and France are feuding, and after the loss to Iceland, the British press said with bad intentions:

"Iceland is an underrated team, and if the French team dares to attack aggressively, it is very likely to suffer the same outcome as the British team, so the best way for the French team to win is to play defensive counterattacks!"

This sentence disgusts the French!

What does it mean that the French team does not dare to attack with a large army?

Do you really think that the French team is the same as your British team?

I'm a top team in France, okay!

So the French said one after another, attack, must attack!

If Iceland doesn't dare to attack, where will the face of our countrymen go?

However, there are also sober French people who say that it is the British who are using the agitation method.

Iceland's counter-attacking threat is indeed great, and if the French team really attacks aggressively, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not be attacked by the opponent.

However, the French team has been put on fire, and as the hosts, they naturally can't be coaxed at this time.

You can get on it if you want to, and you can get it if you don't want to!

However, compared with the match between France and Iceland, in the quarterfinals, the most attractive is another championship and runner-up battle - Spain VS Germany!

If the last game of Spain VS Italy was a grudge between the champions and runners-up of the last European Cup, then this one, Spain VS Germany, is another showdown between the champions and runners-up of the last World Cup.

Whether it will be Spain, the champion, who continues its glory and slaughtered the German team again, or whether the German chariot succeeds in revenge and successfully overthrows the Spanish matador, this match will reveal the answer.

……

Germany take Spain very seriously as a rival, and since losing to Spain in the World Cup final two years ago, their head coach Loew has added an extra part of his daily job – studying the Spanish game footage.

Not only did they study the footage of their national team's games, but they also collected information about each of their players and discussed with the players and coaching staff how to deal with each other.

It is no exaggeration to say that the people in the world who know the Spanish team the most are probably not themselves, but the Germans!

For this war of revenge, the Germans have been preparing for a long time, and this time, they swore to make the Spaniards pay!

Compared with the attention of the Germans, the Spanish team pays much less attention to the German team.

It's not that they are careless, it's just that they have too many enemies to take care of.

Speaking in detail, Spain has a lot of strong enemies.

On the European side, there are Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy.

There are also five-star Brazil and Argentina with Messi on the Latin American side.

Each of these opponents is not so easy to get along with, and each one cannot be ignored.

Therefore, although Bosque is also studying the information of his opponents, because there are too many opponents, he does not collect as much as Loew and his team.

"The German team is a top team, and I don't need to say anything more about their quality!"

Before the game, Bosque gathered the players together and mobilized them for an ideological campaign.

"Although Klose has withdrawn from the German team, they have added a lot of strong newcomers, such as Reuss."

Reus missed the last World Cup due to injury, which is something that has been haunting many German fans.

They felt that if Reus had not been absent, the outcome of the World Cup final would probably have been different.

Royce is a strong player, as no one who has watched him in the game will deny.

Last season, Reus scored 27 goals and 9 assists in 45 games for Dortmund!

Reuss, who is healthy, is capable of competing for the fourth man in football!

His arrival has greatly increased the attacking threat of the German midfield and multiplied the pressure on the opposition backline.

Originally, Reuss missed the European Championship due to injury.

But on this plane, Royce didn't miss the event.

Because of Lin Quan's reminder, Reuss reduced his playing time in unnecessary games after communicating with Dortmund coach Tuchel, so that his physical condition has been maintained very well.

And with less time playing, his performance has not only not declined, but has improved.

Last season, Reus scored three more goals and two more assists than he did in history.

While Reuss' injury is still a concern, everything is looking better after a season of conditioning.

After the departures of Gotze, Lewandowski and Jurgen Klopp, Dortmund was no longer glorious and began to rebuild.

Royce also understands that the team's rebuilding is not something that can be completed in a moment, so when he is on the field, he will weigh the pros and cons, work hard when he should be desperate, and retain his physical strength when he should have reservations.

After not overworking as before, Reuss's injury situation has improved a lot and he is finally in time for this European Championship.

This made him very grateful to Lin Quan, and he called Lin Quan before the game and agreed to have a drink after the game.

"So, don't think we've won, and don't pin all your hopes on Lin!"

Bosque emphasized the second half of the sentence, and he found that after Lin Quan's comeback, the players were a little too optimistic.

It's a good thing to be optimistic, but it's not good to be too optimistic.

If you don't pay attention to your opponents, even if you are a world champion, it will only be a matter of minutes.

Bosque's knock made the Spanish players more vigilant.

No matter what he thought in his heart, he nodded obediently at this time, looking like he understood.

"It's not all bad for us to meet Germany early!"

After seeing that the players began to pay attention, Bosque changed his words:

"Germany are undoubtedly one of the strongest teams in this tournament and if we can beat them, we will be able to clear the biggest obstacle on our way to winning the title, so the rest of the schedule will be much easier and it will be easier for us to win the title!"

This sentence was unanimously agreed by the players, and the Spanish international still recognized the strength of the German team more than the hosts France and the European Red Devils Belgium.

This German team has a very luxurious midfield and is one of the few opponents in midfield who has not lost to Spain.

Moreover, after Guardiola joined Bayern, he brought the German team the skills of passing and control, and also made the German team one of the teams that know Spain the most in terms of tactics.

Such an opponent, in every way, is Spain's greatest threat!

(End of chapter)