Iceland’s national men’s football team won its first UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying match against Andorra on Friday, RÚV reports. It is the team’s first victory under new coach Eirik Hamrén, following the departure of Coach Heimir Hallgrímsson, who led the team to their historic World Cup debut in 2018.
Much as expected, Iceland took control of the game from the start and Birkir Bjarnason took the first shot on goal only eight minutes into the match. Minutes later, Ari Freyr Skúlason made a great cross to Alfreð Finnbogason in the goal area, but surprisingly, Alfreð’s shot went right over the goal.
Andorra had five corner kicks in the first 20 minutes of the game, but didn’t manage to make anything of these opportunities. In the 22nd minute, Iceland got its first corner. Gylfi Þór Sigurðsson directed the ball to Ragnar Sigurðsson, who headed it into the far post. Birkir Bjarnason was quick to take a rebound shot, which finally found its target. The score was 1 – 0 at the half.
The second half got off to a slower start, with very little action for the first 15 minutes of play. Rúnar Már Sigurjónsson then came in for captain Aron Einar Gunnarsson. Aron, who underwent knee surgery in April 2018 after sustaining an injury while playing for Cardiff City F.C., immediately had to ice his knee after coming off the field, but is expected to be in good shape to play Iceland’s next qualifying match against France in Paris on Monday evening.
Viðar Örn Kjartansson came in for Alfreð Finnbogason in the 70th minute and ten minutes later, he received a right cross from Birkir Már Sævarsson and scored the second and final goal of the match. This was Viðar Örn’s third goal with the national team.
