England are going home after being dumped from another global tournament. Don't be so surprised. Not like the first time it's happened, right? Remember Uruguay at the 2014 World Cup? Losing in the penalty shootouts to Italy at Euro 2012? That humiliation at Germany's hands at the same stage at the 2010 World Cup?

In fact, leave aside the usual recrimination that has already begun. Focus instead on the other story. The fairytale which refuses to fade away – the story of tiny, feisty Iceland, ranked 34th in the world and "with more volcanoes than professional footballers", have now made it to the quarter-finals of the Euro 2016 the first time they have ever participated in a global tournament.

England even got an early lead, via a Wayne Rooney penalty in the fourth minute. But Iceland just don't know how to give up. Almost with the next touch of the ball, they roared back with Ragnar Sigurdsson equalising. And just 10 minutes later, they shoved themselves into lead, with Kolbeinn Sigthorsson hitting a low shot and, as usual, England keeper Joe Hart fluffing his lines.

England were abject, Iceland were not. And when the deed was done, they celebrated like they richly deserved to. The Iceland footballers joined in with their supporters to do the "Viking chant", a stunningly choreographed spectacle of noise and fervour.

England will be joined on their return flight by defending champions Spain whose era of dominance seems to have finally been brought to an end by Italy. The Azzuri played a fantastic 90 minutes of football to knock Vincent del Bosque's team out 2-0. Individuals' creativity in Spain was completely nullified by Italy's power of the collective and they could have lost by a bigger margin, had it not been for a couple of amazing saves by La Roja's talismanic goalkeeper David De Gea.