Iceland.
Finished as Group A runners-up in their European Championship qualification.
Started their qualification at home with a 3-0 win over Turkey, then repeated that scoreline away at Latvia.
They went on and dropped the jaws of football fans by beating the Netherlands 2-0. The Dutch are the 2014 FIFA World Cup semifinalist.
After three wins in three matches, it was the Czech Republic that gave Iceland a taste of defeat in their qualifiers. Their 2-1 away loss to Czech Republic was responded with a 3-0 home win against Kazakhstan. Their following Euro qualification match was an opportunity to revenge their loss to Czech Republic. And that they did by reversing the scoreline in a 2-1 home win.
They dropped the jaws of the football public again when they defeated Netherlands away to a 1-0 win. Their next two qualifiers were home matches that ended in a draw. A goalless home draw to Kazakhstan, and a 2-2 draw to Latvia.
Turkey gave Iceland their second defeat in the qualifiers. It was probably the most expensive defeat, as it denied them the chance of topping the group.
In 10 matches, Iceland was undefeated at home, won 6, drawn 2 and lost 2. With two losses in 10 matches, Iceland had proven to be a difficult team to beat.
All teams in the final tournament are there because they had a good record in their qualifiers. Iceland coming into the tournament losing just 2 of their 10 matches, winning against every team in their qualifying group and keeping a 100% win record against the Netherlands was still not enough to predict that they will be successful in the 2016 European Championship.
The best of the best in Europe had gathered, and Iceland was just making a debut. They lacked the experience in a major football tournament. Sharing a group with Portugal, Russia and Hungary didn’t make their chances look any brighter.
Iceland was the smallest European nation in the 2016 European Championship. Their football stars wouldn’t make they cut in any of the nations that were representing in the tournament.
Iceland finished their 2016 European Championship group stage as runners-up and undefeated. They were tied in points with the group winners, Hungary.
Heimir Hallgrímsson: "The players are in the hearts of the whole nation. For now. Forever." #ISL #EURO2016 pic.twitter.com/6pmxYOaNBF
— UEFA EURO 2016 (@UEFAEURO) June 28, 2016
In their first ever major international football tournament, they advanced from their group and won their first match in the knockout stage. Their historic victory in the ‘Round of 16’ dropped the jaws of the football public once again.
We have here a team that is breaking the odds and defying logic. A team that will walk away from this competition with their head held up high. A team on the brink of breaking records.
Den isländske kommentatorn är tillbaka. Lyssna på den hysteriska glädjen vid 2-1 till Island <3 pic.twitter.com/Qv6anSvhyv
— Ehsanúr Fadakarúr (@ehsanfadakar) June 27, 2016
Every move for Iceland at this point is a record-breaking move. And they have an opportunity to break this record by beating the host nation in the quarterfinals. Football mathematics will say it is highly improbable. But for as long as it isn’t impossible, Icelandic fans won’t pay no mind to those statistics.
Iceland remains undefeated in the 2016 European Championship.
