ENGLAND v ICELAND WE’RE OFF TO WAR Roy’s boys up against ‘army’ of JEREMY CROSS heroes
ICELAND will go to war with England tonight.
Lars Lagerback’s minnows meet Roy Hodgson’s men in Nice with a place in the quarter-finals at stake.
Few people give Iceland a chance of causing an upset that would send shockwaves around the football world and probably cost Hodgson his job.
But Lagerback’s assistant Heimir Hallgrimsson said: “We are too small to have an army and lack manpower, so we’d be easily beaten rather quickly.
“So these guys are the Icelandic army. That’s why everyone is supporting them. We feel confident we can do it.”
There are more volcanoes than professional players among a population of 330,000. When former England and Manchester United star Lee Sharpe made Grindavik the last club of his
career, he had to wait until tea time to go training as all his team-mates were working as fishermen during the day.
Hodgson and his coaching staff punched the air in celebration when Iceland’s last-gasp win over Austria confirmed them as England’s next opponents in the last 16 instead of Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo.
But should Lagerback’s men pull off a seismic shock, then it will be Hodgson lying flat on the canvas.
The country will come to a standstill for the game tonight, with former Premier League star Hermann Hreidarsson calling for a national holiday if Iceland win.
Hallgrimsson, who will take over from Lagerback after the tournament in France, said: “This is a win-win game. They’ve already won the hearts of all Icelandic people for their performances.
“They’ll always be winners in my book. On the other hand, if we beat England, their lives will change forever and significantly.
“Icelandic football will go up in reputation and the way we approach football will be different.
“If you want the best out of life, you have to be ready when the chance is there for you and there aren’t bigger chances than this for Icelandic football.
“It’s up to the players to play well and hopefully we will beat England. But whichever way this goes, these players are winners already.”
Lagerback’s men have already earned themselves a £40,000 bonus each for getting to the knockout phase.
And Arnor Ingvi Traustason, who came off the bench to score the winner against Austria last Wednesday, has secured a £1.6m move from Swedish team Norrkoping to Rapid Vienna.
Former Portsmouth, Ipswich and Crystal Palace defender Hreidarsson said: “This is beyond our wildest dreams.
“Without a doubt it would be the greatest achievement in the history of Icelandic sport if we would knock them out.
“If we win, the government should make Tuesday a national holiday. There won’t be anyone at work anyway.
“I manage a team in Iceland and we have a game on Tuesday. I am trying to get it postponed or cancelled so I can go to the match.
“I 100 per cent believe we can beat England. We are still unbeaten in the Euros – we don’t know how to lose on the big stage.”