England vs Iceland: Steve McClaren's painful reaction to winning goal in Euro 2016 goes viral
The former England manager suffered a horrendous gaffe for Kolbeinn Sigthorsson's winner
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Your support makes all the difference.On one of the most embarrassing nights in English football’s history, one of its most unsuccessful national team managers had a part to play – and many are already describing it as ‘the television moment of the year’.
Steve McClaren, who infamously failed to secure qualification for the 2008 European Championship during his short spell in charge of England, summarised Monday night's 2-1 defeat to Iceland for Sky Sports News and initially seemed impressed.
Wayne Rooney’s fourth-minute penalty had given Roy Hodgson’s men the lead and, although Iceland soon struck back through Ragnar Sigurdsson, McClaren was pleased with England’s response.
"Perfect,” he said, when asked to describe the reaction to Iceland’s equaliser. “Continued dominating the game. Playing and staying in Iceland’s half.
“England have had two corners… they’re causing them problems. It’s been the perfect response. You’d think, no problem, start again, keep dominating, keep putting pressure on.”
“The only thing that they have got is the big boy up front… Sigurdsson… Sigthorsson,” he added, before taking a sharp intake of breath and then groaning as that ‘big boy’ Kolbeinn Sigthorsson himself scored Iceland’s second.
McClaren's reaction has, predictably, been lapped up by social media users, with many revelling in his misplaced confidence that England would dominate their opponents.
Hodgson's side did nothing of the sort and Iceland saw out the win to qualify for the European Championships quarter-finals.
McClaren went on to tell Sky Sports News that there would be 'repercussions' for the defeat, which has been described as England's worst since the 1950 World Cup reverse against the United States.
"I never expected it - never in a million years," he said. "But the fourth game exposed England and there's going to be an inquest about everything - players, set-up, the way we go forward.
"Surely now we have an opportunity where we sit back and say: 'What exactly is our problem and what do we need to do to go forward?'"
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