Vidarsdóttir carrying hopes of a nation

On 24 August, Iceland will play their first match in a senior continental final tournament when they take on France in their UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ opener. And the player that set them on the way to that qualification after scoring against Les Bleues two years ago knows the whole of the island nation will be behind them in Finland.

Breakthrough
Margrét Lára Vidarsdóttir scored the only goal of Iceland's 1-0 home win against France in June 2007, a result that announced their presence as a genuine force. Although France were to get revenge with a 2-1 victory that ensured automatic progress, Iceland beat the Republic of Ireland 4-1 on aggregate in the October 2008 play-offs to earn a finals place. It was a tie in which Vidarsdóttir took her qualifying goal tally to 12, unmatched across Europe.

Key moment
"You have to start somewhere, and the game against France was the start for us, when we started believing that we can really beat anyone on our day," Vidarsdóttir told uefa.com. "But we have to be at our best, everyone has to; we can't be lazy or unprepared as we are a small country and we need everyone to be ready. We started there and since then we have been beating big countries. If you have confidence in yourself you can do anything, and that's what we have at the moment."

United nation
The people of Iceland also have confidence in them, 70 per cent of the population tuning in for the second leg against Ireland. Vidarsdóttir said: "The team and staff and the whole country are just waiting for Finland. It has been hard this year for Iceland, the economy hasn't been so good so we will bring something positive to the country and we know we have support from everyone. We are excited."

High profile
Vidarsdóttir, for one, is relishing the high profile. "Everyone wants to be in our position," the 22-year-old Kristianstads DFF striker said. "Every girl in Iceland wants to be in the national team today and that's huge." Nor does she mind being singled out as the team's star. "I feel the pressure, and the pressure should be on me. I should score goals for the team and should do my job on the pitch. If I don't do that, nobody should be happy with me. And I put it on myself, I work really hard and I want to be in my best shape."

'Toughest group'
She will have to be to challenge not just France, but their other Group B opponents, holders Germany and 2005 runners-up Norway, who Iceland beat 3-1 in March. "We are in the toughest group, but that's a challenge for us and for me as a player," the former ÍBV Vestmannaejyar, Valur Reykjavík, FCR 2001 Duisburg and Linköpings FC forward said. "I am in football to play against the best and we can show how good we are. Of course we could do badly but we don't think about that; we can surprise people. It will be hard but if we are well organised and have belief, anything is possible."