Former England coach Roy Hodgson has told The Times his side's stunning 2-1 loss to Iceland at Euro 2016 came as "a massive surprise."
Hodgson left his job following the humiliating round of 16 exit to one of the tournament's most unfancied teams.
The 69-year-old had seen England take an early lead through Wayne Rooney's penalty but go into the break 2-1 down.
They were unable to turn the match around in what became an increasingly desperate second half, and Hodgson said: "The game came as a massive surprise.
"Everything leading up to it lulled us into a false sense of security. Not just the coaches, but the players too.
"We did all our preparation and that went well. The training sessions were good, everyone was motivated."
He said his players had gone into the game "thinking we are better than the team we're playing, we have better players, we are in good shape, in good form, we're confident and it will go our way."
England's night began to unravel as Iceland equalised moments after Rooney's early breakthrough when Ragnar Sigurdsson struck.
But Hodgson said the second goal, scored by Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, had a more profound effect on the mentality of his players.
"It restored their faith in their journey, and for some reason our players seemed to freeze a little bit," he added.
"We saw that at the time and we also saw the team playing way below how they had been and making technical mistakes, passing mistakes, ball-control mistakes."
Hodgson said he had believed at half-time that it was "a question of getting back on track" but added that he had started to see "the fear emerging and the self-confidence draining" after the break.
"You're thinking: 'This can't happen, this is such a bad moment -- we can't live through the aftermath of this moment' and you are counteracting that with considering: 'What can we do, what changes can be made?' he said.
"Half of you is thinking tactically and the other half of you... your heart is beating faster because it's not going your way."
But Hodgson was quick to stress that he admired Iceland for the way they had played and what they had achieved, adding: "I am the first person to take my hat off to them.
"If anyone asks me: 'What do you think of them?' I'll be unbelievably generous in my praise.
"But when we lost that game I never wanted to hear the word Iceland again."