European Championships: England's Worst Euros Results

England came within a penalty shootout of winning Euro 2020 and before that had reached the semi-finals on two occasions. Yet England’s relationship with the European Championships is fraught with the shadow of disappointment, rather than a sense of success.

Euro 2024 will be England's 11th European Championship. To date they've reached one final, fallen at the semis twice, and exited in the knockout rounds on three other occasions. They also bombed in the group stage four times between 1980 and 2000.

We all assumed it couldn't get worse than in November 2007 when England didn't even qualify for Euro 2008. Then came Iceland in 2016 and England were left utterly humiliated.

England vs Iceland is only the latest of a string of bad results at the Euros that stretch back to the Three Lions' first entry into the competition. Here are six of the worst.

England 0-1 Yugoslavia | Euro '68 semi-finals

England reached their first European Championships semi-final in 1968, two years after lifting the World Cup.

They'd done the hard part in qualifying, beating the three other Home Nations to reach the quarter-finals and then edging Spain over two legs to make the tournament proper. They were favourites to beat a Yugoslavia side that hadn't qualified for either the '66 World Cup nor the '64 Euros.

England bombed. A team featuring Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton just couldn't force through the Yugoslavia defence. The game looked to be limping to extra time until Dragan Džajić stole in behind Moore, chesting the ball down and fired past Banks.

Alan Mullery then picked up the dubious honour of being the first England player to see a red card. The world champions were out of a four-team tournament.

England 0-1 Republic of Ireland | Euro '88 group stage

England hadn’t lost to Ireland for almost 40 years when the two sides met in the Euro '88 group stage. The game in Stuttgart was a tasty affair decided by an early Ray Houghton goal for the Irish.

The goal came as a shock to boss Bobby Robson but what was more surprising was England's lack of fight. John Barnes was the only real threat in the first half, while Pat Bonner denied Gary Lineker and Peter Beardsley late on.

It was a shock loss for England but, in fact, stretched the Republic's unbeaten streak to 11 games. Not that it helped them much either. Both sides would eventually fall at the group stage in West Germany.

England 1-3 Soviet Union | Euro '88 group stage

Indeed, by the time England lined up for their third match of Euro ‘88 they were already knocked out. Robson made a couple of changes in the hope of securing at least a morale boost to take back on the plane home. He didn't even get that. Sergei Aleinikov put the Soviets ahead after just three minutes. Tony Adams levelled, only for Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko to restore the advantage by half time.

England laboured in the second half. Mark Hateley replaced Gary Lineker as they scrambled for a goal but it was Soviet sub Viktor Pasulko who found the net at the other end.

These days three such humiliating defeats at the European Championship would lead to the manager being sacked, assuming he didn't quit first. In 1988 the FA stuck with Robson and he transformed the team, taking them to the cusp of the World Cup final two years later.

Sweden 2-1 England | Euro '92 group stage

The Italia '90 heartbreak was still fresh in the minds of fans when they headed to Sweden for Euro '92. Graham Taylor was now in charge and a fresh generation had come into the team, including Alan Shearer, David Batty, and Carlton Palmer. The enthusiasm didn't last.

England drew 0-0 with both Denmark and France. They were dour games but at least the Three Lions had a chance of escaping the group. All they needed to do was beat – or perhaps even draw against – Sweden in Solna. David Platt scored after four minutes and England were motoring along nicely until the second half.

Jan Eriksson's big header levelled the scores, before Tomas Brolin linked up with Martin Dahlin to break England hearts eight minutes from time. England didn't deserve to win that day, nor had they deserved anything from their other group games. It was a woeful exit made worse a year later when they failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup.

England 2-3 Romania | Euro 2000 group stage

If fans thought Euro ‘92 was bad, they weren’t prepared for Euro 2000. Fresh off the hype of 1996 and a wave of optimism at the 1998 World Cup, England headed to Netherlands and Belgium feeling confident as outside favourites.

That confidence was well founded. They may have lost 3-2 to Portugal in an opening-game thriller but a 1-0 victory over Germany surely had England on their way. All they had to do was avoid defeat to lowly Romania.

Gheorghe Popescu and co. hadn’t read the script. Romania led through Cristian Chivu and bounced back to equalise after Alan Shearer and Michael Owen thought they had turned the game. England were still going through until Phil Neville scythed down Viorel Moldovan with a minute to go. Ionel Ganea swept the spot kick past Nigel Martyn and England were, somehow, how out of a tournament they could have won.

England 1-2 Iceland | Euro 2016 last-16

What is England's worst ever result? Losing 2-1 to Iceland on 27 June 2016 in Nice.

There are defeats and then there are national humiliations. That’s what happened to England in 2016 when lowly Iceland, playing in their first major tournament, beat them in the last-16.

The real pain of this result was that Iceland thoroughly deserved it. They were quicker to the ball, played with a defensive structure, exploited England’s weakness at set pieces, and thrived in the moment.

England, who led through a Wayne Rooney penalty four minutes in, wilted once Ragnar Sigurðsson had restored parity moments later. Kolbeinn Sigþórsson made it 2-1 on 18 minutes and Iceland frustrated England for the rest of the game.

The media branded it England’s “worst ever defeat”, worse even than losing to the United States at the 1950 World Cup. Roy Hodgson lost his job. Sam Allardyce replaced him.

There we have it, England's worst defeats at the European Championships in their history. We would like to believe that England won't add to this list at Euro 2024 but stranger things have happened. Who would have thought that any of these results would have happened? Hopefully, England avoid another disappointing defeat this Summer.