Iceland made history after qualifying for the last 16 of an European Championship for the first time ever after beating Austria 2-1 in their final Group F game of the Euro 2016 on Wednesday at the Stade de France.
Iceland made a cracker of a start to the game as they wanted to finish things off early on and progress ahead in the competition. Johann Gudmundsson came close to scoring as early as in the third minute of the game. However, his shot hit the crossbar. After finding oodles of space 25 yards out, the former Charlton Athletic winger went for the superb shot that could have been one of the goals of the competition, if the ball had gone inside the net.
It was only the start Iceland needed. Austria were pushed back and soon they were completely left without answers. The island nation got the lead in the 18th minute as Bodvarsson gave them the first blood following a good build-up. The striker played a quick one-two with Kari Arnason and then dribbled past the Austria defence to lash the low shot on goal.
Austria tried their best to up the ante following the goal and Newcastle midfielder Marko Arnautovic was the man spearheading the attack for Marcel Koller's side. The team had a massive chance to score the equaliser in the 37th minute as David Alaba was fouled by an Iceland player inside the box and the referee had no option but to point it to the spot.
The resultant penalty from Aleksander Dragovic, who returned following a one-match suspension, saw the ball bouncing off the post and going out.
Both teams started well in the second half but it was Austria who was doing more of the pressing. Their tenacity finally bore fruit in the 60th minute as Alessandro Schöpf scored from a quick breakaway following a good build up with Bayern Munich's Alaba, who played the second half better than he did in the first.
The likes of Gylfi Sigurdssson and Ragnar Sigurdsson also gave good performances for Iceland in the half. The icing on the cake, however, waited for them until the dying minutes. Substitute Arnor Traustason scored in the 90 (+4)th minute and that was the winner for Iceland.
History was made.