Island's football team supported by 10.000 fans.VIDEO

       

 They are the North Atlantic minnows from the land of ice and fire who have thawed the hearts of football fans across the continent.

Plucky Iceland have simply no fear as they face off against England tonight in the most important match in their history.

And the team from the smallest country to ever make it to the Euros have every right to hold their heads high.

  Because Iceland didn’t just scramble into Euro 2016. They stormed the finals in France and immediately set about stunning one of the tournament’s heavyweights by getting their way out of their group.

Now they stand on the brink of immortality in their native land if they can pull of a shock victory against Roy Hodgson's England.

Iceland’s fairytale came to an end as France.

       

      Iceland’s fairytale came to an end as France cruised into a semi-final against Germany with a blistering first-half performance.France make short work of Iceland to coast into the Euro 2016 semi final.

        Peep peep! For a meaningless second half, that was pretty enjoyable. France go through to meet Germany; Iceland have done themselves proud even in a 5-2 defeat. 

          The XI who started all five games are already legends of Icelandic football. France will hope to achieve the same status in their own country in the next seven days.

         Thanks to Iceland for making football fun in the last few weeks. And thanks to whichever higher power decreed that France will face Germany in the semi-final, because that will be an epic even before a ball is kicked. Thanks for your emails and company; I’ll leave you with this from Niall Mullen.

‘In 1946 Iceland played against Ilford. Now it’s England in the Euros … Afram Island!’

 When Halldor Einarsson’s sports kit company started selling shirts to Iceland fans for Euro 2016, they added a felt-tip pen to the deal. The three Group B fixtures were printed on the right sleeve, with a box to fill in the scores.

“I thought we would maybe get one draw from those three games, and I wasn’t arrogant enough to leave space for a fourth match,” said Einarsson, one of the best-known figures in Icelandic football, who once arranged a summer visit by Manchester United and persuaded George Best to play against them.

     His predictions were wrong and his company, Henson, has had to go into overtime to try to cope with demand. Iceland won one, drew two and they next play the biggest match in the nation’s sporting history, a knockout tie against England in Nice tomorrow.

“We’re making more shirts, these ones with the England game on them,” said Einarsson, who was twice a national champion in his playing days with Valur, one of Reykjavik’s top clubs..

   

   “If we win, we can find room for the next one, the quarter-final. No matter how far the team progresses, we will find room to put the matches on there. It’s hard to cope with demand, but it’s great fun.”

Henson and fellow members of the older generation in Icelandic football can barely believe what is happening, but already they are talking about beating England.

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“This is our dream come true, but for so long it was just a dream,” said Sigmundur Steinarsson, who has written a two-part history of football in Iceland, and has reported on the game since 1970. “We didn’t play a game on grass until 1957. Before that, we played on lava – crushed gravel. We were a very bad team for many years.”

The first “international” contests were in 1939, when the Islington Corinthians, a now defunct amateur team from north London, defeated Iceland’s finest 1-0 and 3-2 in Reykjavik. The visitors were presented with a gift: copies of Iceland: Nature and Nation in Photographs.

True Leader.C'mon!

While historically being one of Europe's smaller football nations, Iceland have enjoyed more success in the 21st century. In thequalifying rounds for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Iceland reached the play-offs before losing to Croatia. Iceland reached its first major tournament, UEFA Euro 2016, after a qualification campaign which included home and away wins over the Netherlands. In doing this they became the smallest ever nation to qualify for a major tournament. After advancing to the knockout stages of Euro 2016, Iceland defeated England in the round of 16, advancing to the quarter finals.

In a friendly against Estonia on 24 April 1996 in Tallinn, Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen entered as a substitute for his father Arnór. This marked the first time that a father and son played in the same international match.
Iceland fans went wild as their national squad crushed England 2–1 to secure a shocking Euro 2016 triumph in the round of 16, one that finished with England chief Roy Hodgson tendering his abdication. 

Iceland had never fit the bill for a noteworthy competition before the European Championship, and it is the littlest nation in the competition. That didn't prevent the island country from toppling England, with Ragnar Sigurdsson and Kolbeinn Sigthorsson scoring after Wayne Rooney opened the scoring in the fourth moment from the punishment spot. 


Look as Iceland's fans, a number of whom pressed a town square in Reykjavik, go insane amid and after the notable win.

Island football stars say 'WE'RE NEVER GOING HOME!'

                       As the final whistle blew in Nice, Benediktsson exploded into a barely intelligible rant, proudly telling the Three Lions their time was up.

He cried: “This is done! This is done! We are never going home!

“Did you see that! Did you see that! Never wake me from this amazing dream!”

Gudmunder benediktsson may not be a household name – but his glorious commentary of the Iceland team’s remarkable run in Euro 2016 has fast become a global hit.

Iceland fans celebrate their remarkable victory in NiceThe high-pitched shrieks of the excitable commentator were back in full swing last night as England were dumped out of the tournament by the smallest nation in the competition.

     Their plane flew low over the capital Reykjavik before landing at Keflavik airport where the local fire services gave them a fire hose guard of honour with shooting water creating a rainbow.

   Striker Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, who scored a consolation goal in thecrushing 5-2 defeat to the hosts at the Stade de France on Sunday said he was happy to be home.

"It was a dream come true to get that support," he said of the estimated 30,000 fans -- some ten percent of the population -- who followed the nation in France.

"We experienced something simply wonderful, it was a dream come true and we are proud to have brought such cheer to our country," he said, adding that the friendly behaviour of the fans had done the country proud.

The players were then paraded through the streets of the capital on a double decker bus in the direction of Arnarholl Park, to celebrate with their fans and sing the famous "huh" - the Viking war chant - which is actually Scottish, punctuated by hand clapping.

"Fairy tales still exist! It's rare - if indeed this has ever happened - to unite us Icelanders as you did on the football pitch," Prime Minister Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson told the team in downtown Reykjavik, to the resounding cheers of tens of thousands of supporters.

"You are a national treasure!" he added as fans waved flags and team jerseys, and children held aloft cards with their favourite players.

To the delight of the crowd, the heroes of the day sang the "huh" watched emotionally by Swedish coach Lars Lagerback who hailed a "team performance" and confided he felt "at home" whenever he was in Iceland.

Many present had also followed the team to France. "They react with pride even after defeat. They did not give up, they did not stop, they return as heroes," said August Ingi Kristjansson, a 23-year-old who was present in Stade de France on Sunday.

"I'm just so proud!" added Sverrir Gardarsson. "What will happen next? We will rule the world!"

Iceland drew with Hungary and Portugal, then beat Austria to book a last-16 place, where they then defeated England 2-1 to set up a quarter-final with France.

         Iceland's footballers received a heroes welcome on returning home on Monday following their astonishing run to the Euro 2016 quarter-finals in France.