Euros

Thousands of fans showed up to show to see the national team of Iceland return home to Reykjavik, and to show their appreciation.

If there was one story that everyone got behind at this year's European Championships, it was this unbelievable tale of a small island nation of 325,000 people that threatened to upset everybody. 

Iceland's story proved that hard work and an emphasis on grassroots-development can be successful, no matter how limited the resources nor how small the talent pool.

Italian penalty specialist Simone Zaza has issued a public apology through his Instagram account after his ridiculous penalty kick sailed over the bar against Germany.

Zaza, who was introduced in the 120th minute for Giorgio Chiellini, has become a viral sensation for his scampering approach to a spot-kick. It was an unorthodox technique that was ultimately humiliating from start to finish.

However, none of that is funny anymore.

Cristiano Ronaldo has a chance to finally do it. Finally, Ronaldo has a chance to step out of Lionel Messi’s shadow and become the greatest player of his generation, and by greatest player of course that really means better than Messi. Sounds simple enough. All Ronaldo has to do is win something that has alluded both he and Messi for their entire careers up to now. 

Wales right back Chris Gunter can take comfort in the fact that he is the undisputed favorite child in his family.

We know this because the Gunter parents had to choose between attending Chris's soccer game against Portugal on Wednesday in France or his brother Marc's wedding on Thursday in Mexico. This is not a parenting situation we would want to be in, although there are worse decisions than "go on vacation in France or go on vacation in Mexico." They picked the soccer game.

In the back of our minds, we all kind of knew it would end this way for Iceland. The England win was the climax, the summit. They weren't going to beat France. There was nowhere to go but down.

Which is fine, because they made it up pretty darn high. As much as we all made fun of England after they lost, that team has good players on it. Iceland stifled one of the two best players in the world and made one of Bayern Munich's wonderkinds look very extremely average.

Eventually, though, Iceland were going to run into one of the juggernauts, and it was not going to be pretty.

This past Monday marked another disappointing loss for the England National Football Team as they fell to Iceland in the round of 16 in UEFA Euro 2016.  For fans of England soccer, this is going to be a hard pill to swallow for years to come. However, when you look at the recent history of the club, it may be time to lower expectations a bit. Perhaps England's so-called "early exits" aren't as disappointing or unexpected as fans make them seem. 

Jonas Hector scored the decisive penalty in the ninth round of penalty kicks after Leonardo Bonucci had canceled out Mesut Ozil’s strike in regular time to send Germany into the Euro 2016 semi-finals.

Germany altered their lineup to effectively null any Italian attacking strength, and a fascinating tactical battle between two of Europe’s greatest footballing nations struggled to match the pregame hype. 

Wales became the first British team to reach the semi-finals of a major tournament since England in Euro '96 as they trounced Belgium 3-1 to reach the semi-finals of Euro 2016. Radja Nainggolan opened the scoring for Belgium with an absolute screamer, but Wales were by far the more determined and energetic side, and fully deserved to win.

This result means that a potentially tantalizing clash between Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo will take place in the semi-finals. 

Zlatan's international career is over. That feels weird, now that we type it. It feels like all of Sweden's international career is over, although we say that as someone who has never been to Sweden, so what the hell do we know.

Sweden did not have a good Euro 2016, and that probably had some effect on Zlatan's decision, even though he announced in the middle of the group stage (which Sweden would not make it out of) that this would be his last ride in the yellow and blue. Highlights of Sweden's Euro 2016 can be seen below.