Eyjólfsson enjoys Iceland's 'Cinderella story'

This August, for the first time, an Iceland team will take part in a major senior final tournament and the coach that has led them to UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ in Finland, Siggi Eyjólfsson, cannot quite believe it.

'Cinderella story'
"It's been like a Cinderella story for the past two years since I took over the team," Eyjólfsson told uefa.com. "We've managed to achieve something that nobody's ever done in Iceland before, and I've watched the team grow, amazingly really, over those two years. We've doubled the attendance records for the home games. Our last game, against the Republic of Ireland, was watched [on television] by 70 per cent of the whole country, 160,000 Icelanders, which is amazing. So, it's been a great journey, a great achievement."

Confidence
That 3-0 play-off success against Ireland took Iceland to the finals, after they only just missed out on automatic qualification after a 2-1 defeat in France. Eyjólfsson's playing career took him to the United States, England and Belgium before he took up this, his first coaching role, in January 2007. He masterminded an impressive 4-1 defeat of China in the Algarve Cup two months later and then the crucial home qualifying win against France that June. "Even though we defended for the whole match, we managed to score a goal and win 1-0," the 35-year-old said. "It gave us a lot of confidence, and it also helped the Icelandic nation to realise that we have a very strong team. So we went from the 1,600 fans who watched the France game, to 6,000 in the next match a few days later against Serbia. And from that point, we felt that the Icelandic people were behind the team."

Tough group
Iceland have been drawn in a daunting Group B for the finals, which run from 23 August until 10 September, where they are rematched with France before meeting 2005 runners-up Norway and holders Germany. "I think we are in the toughest group by far," was Eyjólfsson's immediate reaction. However, he has at his disposal the leading goalscorer in the competition so far, the prolific Margrét Lára Vidarsdóttir. The 22-year-old newly-signed Linköpings FC forward totalled 12 goals in qualifying, including the winner against France, and will be the key to Iceland causing upsets in Finland.

Vidarsdóttir stars
"She's been very important," Eyjólfsson said. "She has scored more than a goal per international match since I took over and is a fantastic player. I think if you have a strong group of players, or you have a good team, you're always going to have some stars as well, but you need the strong team for them to be able to dominate, and she's been fantastic for us. Last year she played injured in most of the matches, but she still scored all those goals."

To view this interview in the latest edition of the uefa.com Magazine click here.