Estonia leave it late

Estonia 2-0 Iceland
Late goals from Kristen Viikmäe and Andres Oper gave Estonia a morale-boosting friendly victory against Iceland tonight.

Driving snow
The match, played in driving snow, was never a classic but the result did, at least, bring some cheer to the 2,000 supporters who braved the weather in Tallinn and watched their side progress to a sixth victory of the year.

Oper quality
Estonia will take much confidence from the result, especially as they are facing a real struggle to qualify from UEFA EURO 2004™ Group 8, having picked up just one point from their opening two games, but in Oper they have a striker of genuine quality and it was his shot that sealed the victory four minutes from time.

Decisive strikes
The Aalborg BK player superbly controlled a long ball forward, ploughed his way through the muddy penalty area and finished superbly past the Iceland goalkeeper. Earlier Viikmäe had put the home side in front from just inside the box, the substitute scoring on 74 minutes, shortly after replacing Indrek Zelinski.

Hreidarsson close
Iceland did have their moments, however, most notably in the first half. Ipswich Town FC defender Hermann Hreidarsson came closest for the visitors with a powerful header on the stroke of the interval which struck the post, but that was to be as good as it got on a disappointing night.

Poom praise
Estonia goalkeeper Mart Poom claimed the victory capped an impressive past 12 months for his national team. "We can be very happy with this year - we have achieved some remarkable results and made a huge step forward as a team. I must give credit to all our players, the fighting spirit today and throughout the season was just excellent. Now we have to look for the new challenges in next year's [UEFA] European Championship qualifiers."