Iceland stay grounded despite Czech feat

'Iceland to the finals! Iceland to the finals!' was the cry from the home fans as Iceland took a significant step towards UEFA EURO 2016 with victory against the Czech Republic.

The local media was in similarly jubilant mood after Kolbeinn Sigthórsson's 76th-minute winner in Reykjavik took Iceland above their opponents and two points clear in Group A. "Giant step towards France" was the headline on mbl.is while visir.is went with "Kolbeinn puts Iceland on top" and ruv.is led with "Great victory and Iceland in the top seat".

Iceland midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson was particularly pleased with the reaction after Bořek Dočkal had given the visitors the lead, Aron Gunnarsson swiftly equalising before Sigthórsson's clincher. "We could have broken down after the Czechs scored because they are difficult to break down so the only thing we could do was to think positive, get the ball and equalise," Siguardsson said.

"It was great to have the backing to do that from our supporters, and we scored [quickly], which gave us confidence. We can look back and be proud of the situation, bearing in mind we're facing strong opponents like the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Turkey in our group. This just shows the good work we've been doing in recent years. We believed, but we have difficult games ahead."

Iceland co-coach Lars Lagerbäck also recognised the importance of that fighting spirit, adding: "It was important to equalise soon after their goal – that made the job easier for us. The boys' mindset is to bounce back right after conceding a goal and keep cool. They played better in second half."

Lagerbäck's co-coach Heimir Hallgrímsson sounded a note of caution, saying: "Our goal is to make it to France and hopefully that dream will come true, but we have to be careful not to get ahead of ourselves. We have got here by being focused on the task and not thinking we are so much better than our opponents."

Czech coach Pavel Vrba acknowledged his own side had been architects of their own downfall: "We must be aware of what went wrong, and this is a stupid loss, but Iceland played well. Iceland have developed their football, worked very well with their youth teams and play at a high level."