Iceland to meet England in last 16
Smallest nation at Euro 2016 set up England clash in last 16
REPORTING FROM PARIS
GROUP F
ICELAND 2
(Jon Dadi Boedvarsson 18, Arnor Traustason 90+3)
AUSTRIA 1
(Alessandro Schopf 60)
The fairy tale - astonishingly, incredibly - lives on.
Bring on England next for the smallest nation ever to take part in the European Championship Finals.
As Iceland celebrated a sensational 2-1 victory that earned them a last-16 spot this morning (Singapore time) after a typically resilient backs-to-the-wall performance in the second half, Austria became the first of the dark horses to crash out after promising so much coming into the competition.
The wet weather that has enveloped Paris over the last few days suddenly gave way to a sunny, baking hot day in the French capital.
And the heat was on both these sides with Austria having to win to stand any chance of progressing.
With two-thirds of the Stade de France bathed in Austrian red, their fans got a huge shock after just two minutes when Johann Gudmundsson rattled the goal frame with a thunderous effort from 25 metres.
On 18 minutes, the underdogs deservedly went in front, clearly determined to strike first.
Aron Gunnarsson's long throw caused havoc and, when the ball landed at the feet of Jon Dadi Boedvarsson, the blond Kaiserslautern midfielder turned inside his marker and sweetly swept the ball across goal into the far corner.
Now Austria needed to do what neither Portugal nor Hungary could manage - score twice against the tiniest nation ever to reach the Finals but also boasting one of the meanest defences.
What a chance they had on 36 minutes to level things up.
The Polish referee gave the softest of penalties for arm-wrestling, only for Aleksander Dragovic, back after suspension, to do a Ronaldo and whack the ball against the post.
Why the spot-kick honour was not given to Marko Arnautovic or David Alaba, nobody knows.
PRESSURE
Austria threw on two attacking substitutes for the second half and carved out chance after chance.
After being denied a second penalty - far more worthy than the the first - the pressure finally told as one of those subs - Alessandro Schopf - drove forward and cleverly wriggled his way into the box before finishing beautifully.
With the score in the other game flashed up on the big screen, it made for a grandstand finish.
Despite wave after wave of Austrian attacks and a host of more chances, the Icelandic backline simply wouldn't buckle.
Instead, in stoppage time, it was the nation of 330,000 who stole the glory in with a counter-attacking winner from Arnor Traustason that prompted the whole Icelandic bench to rush onto the field to mob every one fof their battliing heroes.
Now it's England next in the Round of 16. What a story, the like of which may never be experienced again.
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