Gudjohnsen hails Iceland women

Few Icelandic footballers have achieved as much in their career as Eidur Gudjohnsen – but even he admits that the feat of his nation's female side in qualifying for UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ is something he has "not even got close to reaching".

First qualification
A fine group campaign, including a home victory against France, followed by a 4-1 play-off defeat of the Republic of Ireland, took Iceland into their first senior final tournament for either gender. They begin their campaign in Finland on Monday against France, before facing holders Germany and former champions Norway, who they have beaten this year along with England, and Iceland's all-time leading scorer Gudjohnsen is proud of their feat."I wish them all the best," he told uefa.com. "I've told them off a couple of times for us making us boys look bad in Iceland because we're not even close to reaching the same heights as them. But it is fully deserved, I think we've got a fantastic ladies' team and they are a great representative for Iceland."

Excitement
An Eredivisie winner at PSV Eindhoven and a two-time English champion with Chelsea FC before helping FC Barcelona to the UEFA Champions League and Spanish double last season, the 30-year-old is well aware of the excitement in his homeland ahead of the women's finals, with 70 per cent of the population having tuned in to watch them beat Ireland to qualify. "Of course, with any national side that makes it to this stage there is excitement about it, whatever side it is," he said.

Vidarsdóttir praise
Gudjohnsen is reigning Icelandic men's Player of the Year but the holder of the women's title, Margrét Lára Vidarsdóttir, eclipses even him when it comes to goalscoring – her tally of 12 in qualifying was the best for any nation. "I think she's very talented," Gudjohnsen said. "She has got great skill and hopefully in future years she'll get even better."