Ólafur Jóhannesson managed the Icelandic national team in men’s football for the last time on Friday when they lost 3-5 against Portugal in the preliminary round of the European Championship. He declared himself to be “proud of the team” despite the loss.
“As I said before the game the Portuguese are good at football but they haven’t played a particularly good defense and we took good advantage of that,” Jóhannesson told visir.is.
Portugal scored three goals in the first half, two of which Jóhannesson found “unfair”. “I said at halftime that it would have been very easy to quit and asked whether we were men enough to finish the game. Everyone worked hard on playing better and win the second half.”
“Overall, I’m proud of the team,” he stated. When asked whether this was the best game the Icelandic team had played under his management, he replied, “This game is definitely up there; I think everyone had a great time.”
It is undecided who will replace Jóhannesson; click here to read speculations about his successor.
ESA
