But their opponents gave all after the break and were close to turning the match around, closing up a seven-goal deficit to only four at the end. With two points, Iceland can now even dream of reaching the main round.
Meanwhile, thanks to the Icelandic win, the Netherlands have booked their main round ticket after beating Germany in the first match of the day, and will finish on top of the group.
GROUP F
Iceland vs Ukraine 27:24 (16:9)
- as goalkeeper Elin Jona Thorsteinsdottir saved six of the first nine Ukrainian shots, Iceland easily pulled ahead and had full control of the match
- Perla Albertsdóttir, who was awarded Player of the Match, presented by Grundfos, and Andrea Jacobsen were on fire in attack to be key for the clear result
- until the break, Ukraine still lacked efficiency in attack and did not find the means to stop the wave of Icelandic counter-attacks
- but everything changed after the break, as Iceland caused too many mistakes in attack and Ukraine had much more confidence and power than their opponents
- when Tatiana Smbatian netted for the seventh time, scoring at 21:24 with five minutes left, the chance was there to turn the match around, as obviously Iceland were running out of power against the powerful and movable Ukrainian defence
- when Icelandic goalkeeper number two Hafdís Renötudóttir saved a Smbatian shot and Berglind Þorsteinsdóttir scored again, the historic win was sealed
A victory for the history books
Iceland never won a match at the EHF EURO while Ukraine have not won since 2010 and are making a comeback after a decade’s absence. That meant this match would be historic for one of the two sides after losing their respective openers.
Iceland profited from a perfect start, while Ukraine showed strong spirit after the break to produce an outstanding comeback.
Now the Icelanders even have a chance to make it to the main round, if they beat Germany on Tuesday. The teams are equal on two points, and the winner takes the ticket to Vienna. The Netherlands have already clinched their main round berth and Ukraine are out of the race.
In the first half we only focused on us, and what we can do best: we are very good in defence and very good in running. So we just ran, and it worked well. In the end, maybe some players were tired or under stress, or we had in mind that this is the first time we can win. We did not want to make many mistakes, but we did not score that much as in the first half, because we were not running. But we won, that’s all.
We are so sad and disappointed with our start of the game. We just did not do what we should do. So we lost the game already in the beginning, the distance was too big and unfortunately we could not catch up until the end.
