England has existential crisis after their mediocre soccer team loses to a good team

England exited Euro 2016 at the hands of Iceland, losing 2-1 on Monday. Despite the narrow score and Iceland’s excellent performance, the English were outraged.

During their call of the game on ESPN in the United States, Englishmen Ian Darke and Steve McManaman opted not to call the action at all, instead opting to insult the players and Roy Hodgson while lamenting the downfall of their country. Phil McNulty did the same in his BBC column, using the words “embarrassing” and “embarrassment” three times. The front pages of the English newspapers project the image of a country undergoing a complete meltdown.

This is all very patronizing to Iceland, though, who deserve to be judged on their merits and not their population. They’ve performed well against teams just as good as England, defeating the Netherlands twice, as well as Turkey and the Czech Republic in qualifying. They went undefeated in a group with Austria, Portugal and Hungary. “When we got England, I knew it was possible we could beat them,” Monday’s man of the match Ragnar Sigurdsson said after the game, “so we are not surprised.”

This so-called shocking upset was simply a case of a very well-trained and in-form side beating one that was out of form and is known for coming up short of their goals, having failed to make a semifinal outside of their own borders since 1990. Iceland didn’t beat Italy or Spain or Germany. It’s just England.

Iceland with their fans.

Roy Hodgson quit the England job after the match.

In another indication that the English senior management pipeline is fundamentally broken, the favorite to take over is Gareth Southgate. (Telegraph)

Liverpool has announced the signing of Sadio Mané from Southampton. (LFC)

Dani Alves is now a Juventus player. (Juventus)

Diego Maradona has asked Lionel Messi not to retire from Argentina. (Guardian)

Hulk appears to be on the way to the Chinese Super League. (BBC)

Silvio Berlusconi has reportedly sold AC Milan. Again. Wonder if it’s real this time? (Football Italia)

Inter Milan actually finalized their sale to Chinese investors Suning Group. (Inter Offside)

Marseille has accepted a bid from Crystal Palace for Michy Batshuayi, but he’s waiting for a better offer. (Mirror)

Chris Jones on Giorgio Chiellini’s excellent performance against Spain. (ESPN FC)

Will Magee on the reaction to England failing yet again. (Vice)

Claire McNear on Lionel Messi and the changing nature of retirement. (The Ringer)

Besides England’s meltdown? Italy outclassed Spain in a 2-0 win.

The loss marked the end of a golden era for Spain.

You get a little break from soccer over the next couple of days. The Euro 2016 quarterfinals start on Thursday.