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Germans react with glee to England’s Iceland humiliation

DPA/The Local
DPA/The Local - [email protected]
Germans react with glee to England’s Iceland humiliation
Distraught England players after Iceland defeat. photo: DPA

Still upset by their British brothers voting for Brexit, Germans expressed an overwhelming sense of Schadenfreude at England's Euro 2016 exit.

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God really does have a dark sense of humour.

Just days after the UK decided it would be stronger outside the European Union, the English national team was kicked out of Euro 2016 by Iceland. A country of 53 million was defeated by the 300,000 inhabitants of a freezing volcanic rock.

The irony was of course not lost on the people of Germany.

With their seemingly invincible national team already comfortably through to the quarterfinals of the tournament, people just couldn’t resist a little dig at the English.

Berlin Brit Ben Trott could hear the outpouring of vindictive joy from the bars of the capital through his flat window.

Berlin politician Christopher Lauer kicked things off by having a dig at Brexit leader Boris Johnson’s insistence that voting to leave the EU doesn’t mean that Britain has to leave any time soon.

But Lauer wasn’t done there. His next quip took aim at Brits north of Hadrian's Wall, who are desperately trying to prevent Brexit from applying to them.

Tanit Koch, the editor in chief of tabloid Bild, thought she’d get in on the act, making fun of the belief of many Brits that a referendum doesn’t have to be binding if you don’t like the result.

Another wit followed on a similar theme, asking at the end of the first half, when England were already 2-1 down, “are the English already collecting signatures so that the first half can be repeated?”

Left-wing columnist Sebastien Puschner, meanwhile, had a dig at England goalkeeper Joe Hart, who let a seemingly savable shot pass under his hands for the second Icelandic goal.

“Joe Hart, the David Cameron of goalkeepers,” he commented.

After a while, the avalanche of jokes was becoming too much for some to take.

“A suggestion for the common good,” wrote Sven Flohr. “You guys give me a euro for every Brexit joke and I’ll buy us Iceland with it.”

 

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