Nice (France), June 26 (IANS) England will be betting on their long football history against debutants Iceland in the Euro 2016 pre-quarterfinals as the latter want to continue their adventure towards the quarter-finals on Monday.
England head coach Roy Hodgson will be risking his future with the Three Lions should they fail to qualify to the quarter-finals, while Iceland will play with little pressure, amid the support of eight per cent of Icelandic people who travelled to France to support their national team, reports Efe.
Iceland drew twice in the group stage, while they unexpectedly snatched three points from Austria with a very late 2-1 win.
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Monday's match will be an unequal battle between a team that includes a group of the richest players in the world and a team that has only one player in the English Premier League, Gylfi Sigurdsson, who returned to Swansea City after two seasons with Tottenham Hotspurs.
However, England are suffering from a goal-drought, while Iceland do not hesitate to score from every chance, and thus, Hodgson will include Wayne Rooney, Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane, who were supposed to be deadly in front of the goal.
As for the Icelanders, they do not seem to worry about their limited abilities to score goals, as they depend more on courageous defending which covers all other weak aspects. Iceland's tactics might actually lead them to take the game to penalty shoot-outs.
England have not qualified to the Euros' semi-finals since Euro 1996, and there is no doubt that they want to end this series of frustrations.
--IANS
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