Joe Hart: England players won't be allowed to forget shame of Iceland defeat

(Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Simon Johnson28 June 2016

Joe Hart fears the current England squad will never be allowed to forget the shame of losing to Iceland.

England's 2-1 loss to Iceland is already being compared to the shock 1-0 defeat to USA in the 1950 World Cup as the worst result in the team's history.

Hart is concerned that the damage caused to the players' confidence and morale could be long-lasting.

He said: "Of course this result will be remembered forever and it's up to the players how they handle that. Obviously it's in the history books now and we have to deal with it.

"I hope it won't take a long time for the scars to heal. Hopefully the young guys will take as much from the tournament as they can.

"The older guys will have to wear the responsibility and rightly so, including myself. We are going to have to watch the rest of this tournament through our fingers now and it's going to be difficult.

"To lose to Iceland? We are going to have to own that and take it. It's a really, really tough moment in our careers, my career.

"I'm just very very disappointed and upset. But we are going to have to go again. We will get another opportunity and we will see what happens when it comes around."

The Manchester City keeper, who came under heavy criticism for letting a free kick from Gareth Bale beat him in the 2-1 win over Wales, was at fault again for Kolbeinn Sigthorsson's winner.

England were booed off by the fans at the final whistle, while coach Roy Hodgson resigned soon afterwards.

When asked by Standard Sport about whether the players felt like they'd cost Hodgson his job, Hart added: "It was a tough night for us as a team and I include Roy in that.

"We win and lose as a team. It's difficult when you lose a manager, especially in these circumstances. It's not the way anyone of us wanted him to go.

"I am absolutely devastated. Obviously as a team we are very disappointed but personally I can only speak for myself, I apologise for allowing Iceland to take the lead in the game, we should have been dominating after a very good start.

"We have had amazing support throughout. We understand that people will have their opinions and they deserve to with what's happened.

"I just want people to know how much we have put into this tournament, it's not down to a lack of desire or anything like that. It was down to the performance last night and it's why we are in this situation. I'm sad for England, Roy and us as a team."

England players had gone to Euro 2016 with great hope of winning the trophy, especially having beaten World Champions Germany in a friendly just three months ago.

Hart said: "Of course we had high levels of expectation, we came here to do well. It was right to have the expectations we had and the positive mindset to go into this tournament. They look foolish now, of course they do."

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