Faroe Islands win 'will echo around the world'

• Coach Lars Olsen hails the Faroe Islands' "biggest victory for many years"
• Olsen believes his side's 1-0 win will reverberate around the world
• Claudio Ranieri is at a loss to explain Greece's standing at the foot of Group F
• Vasilis Torosidis and Panagiotis Kone express their disbelief
• Next games: Hungary v Greece, Romania v Faroe Islands (29 March)

Lars Olsen, Faroe Islands coach
This is the Faroe Islands' biggest victory for many years. There is of course that famous win over Austria a long time ago, but Greece are a stronger football nation than Austria and this victory tonight is very important.

We played very well. We knew Greece would like to get possession of the ball, but they were not that effective in front of goal. We had seen that they had difficulty creating chances in their previous games. We hoped to score and opted for counterattacks. We had four or five big chances to score. Greece had their chances as well, but we deserved to win as we fought hard in defence and were very good on the break.

All the congratulations go to my players for their effort. Up until three or four years ago the Faroe Islands were just a physical team. Now we try to play with the ball, to get possession and we are improving from match to match.

In the last half-hour you just stand there waiting for the referee to blow the final whistle. It would have been incredibly annoying if the Greeks had equalised!

I'm so unbelievably happy on behalf of the players. I have so often said that I thought they put in an excellent performance even if we had lost. They just kept coming back the next time with incredible motivation. Today they get their reward with a fantastic victory which I believe will echo around the world.

Claudio Ranieri, Greece coach
I have no words to explain what happened. We all wanted to record our first victory in the group. But the Faroese deserved to win as they created more chances to score. Only hard work can get us out of this situation.

When the qualifiers started nobody believed we would find ourselves in this situation. We were wrong in believing that was a straightforward group for us. All defeats hurt equally, but we must leave results in the past and work our way out of this situation.

We are last in our group because that is what we deserve. The coach is always responsible for that. Back in September, most of my players were low on form following the World Cup, but this week during training I saw my players very lively and motivated. That's why I am very surprised about the result.

Vasilis Torosidis, Greece defender
I can't explain what is wrong with us. We are not fighting! We lost to a weaker team that played better than us. I don't know how to summarise our performance. Non-existent, unacceptable? We are to blame. Had you told me two months ago that we would be in this situation I wouldn't have believed it.

Panagiotis Kone, Greece midfielder
We have been a totally different side since the World Cup. We must snap out of this situation. We have lost 95% of our qualification chances. We should congratulate our opponents on their performance and determination. We need to recover quickly and rediscover our qualities.