New high for Iceland's women

Iceland have proved the surprise package in UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ qualifying so far and coach Sigurdur Ragnar Eyjólfsson is delighted with their start.

Perfect start
Having opened Group 3 with a 3-0 win in Greece on 31 May, Iceland then gained an impressive 1-0 victory against top seeds France on Saturday at their national Laugardalsvöllur Stadium. That whetted local interest, because the 5,976 crowd to watch Thursday's 5-0 defeat of Serbia was more than double the previous record for an Icelandic women's international.

Fans' help
Although Iceland have reached the quarter-finals before when they were a two-legged affair and were play-off contenders in 2005, they would gain automatic qualificaiton for Finland in two summers' time if they won this group. Eyjólfsson, whose team are now three points clear of France, said: "Many things that helped us to win. We aimed to press forward which got Serbia into trouble and gave us many crosses in front of their goal. They were kind of lost and never really got into the game but all our players gave everything and were rewarded, not to mention the support we had from the stands. We doubled our record crowd and the players said at half-time they felt like they had two extra players."

Slovenia trip
Although the trip to France in autumn 2008 looks set to be the decider, first Iceland must focus on the 26 August trip to Slovenia. "I am looking forward to the game against Slovenia but you never know about Iceland in away games," Eyjólfsson said. "Even though we are supposed to be the better team, no results are clear. I have seen them play - we need to score an early goal to break them down and then follow it up." Before that, Iceland's new fans of female football have a final tournament to watch when they hosts the UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship in July.