The fairy tale of the Icelandic men’s national football team finally ended at Stade de France in Paris tonight where a fabulous French team beat Iceland 5-2.
After beating England 2-1 on Monday night in Nice, the confidence of the Icelandic team was strong, but tonight, they met an opponent tougher than any before.
Only 12 minutes into the game, Oliver Giroud scored the game’s first goal. That was followed by a second goal by Paul Pogba. Then the third goal was scored by Dimitri Payet during the 43rd minute, closely followed by one from Antoine Griezmann only two minutes later.
The Icelandic team fought hard during the second half, managing to score twice.
During the 55th minute, Kolbeinn Sigþórsson scored a goal for Iceland, but only three minutes later, Oliver Giroud put the ball in the net, bringing the score to 5-1 for France.
Sverrir Ingason came close to scoring a short while later, but the French goalie saved. Birkir Bjarnason scored Iceland’s second goal 84 minutes into the game. The final score was 5-2.
Despite a tough game, the Icelandic fans enthusiastically supported their heroes till the very end, well aware that they had already exceeded all expectations at the championship.
France will meet Germany in the semi-final on Thursday in Marseilles.
From Stade de France where our journalist Zoë Robert took these pictures.
