Hungary 28:36 Iceland (16:16)
Iceland, with little to play for except their pride, ran over a sluggish Hungary with semi-final in their sights. After standing equal at the break, the Icelandic team turned on the heat in the second half and finally showed their mettle at this championship.
The first 15 minutes, there was no sign of what was to come as Hungary built a four-goal lead, exploiting a hesitant Icelandic defence and with good goalkeeping by Nenad Puljezevic. Iceland, however, instead of folding, shored up their defence, changing from 5-1 to a flat 6-0 and keeper Hreidar Gudmundsson coming in for his namesake Birkir Gudmundsson. The changes worked wonders and Iceland equalised to 16-16 before the break.
When the teams resumed the match, Iceland changed gears, and with Sverre Jakobsson and Sigfus Sigurdsson enormous in the heart of the defence, making life easy for Gudmundsson, resulting in fast brakes and easy goals. After a five-goal run in seven minutes, Iceland led by seven, 26-19, with 15 minutes left. With Snorri Steinn Gudjonsson inpired, scoring 11 goals, they built the lead to nine goals and finally won by eight.
The Hungarian team either didn‘t expect this spirit from Iceland, or their nerves let them down, because they were nowhere near the same team that drew against Sweden in their last match. Without good goalkeeping from Puljezevic, they probably would have suffered an even heavier defeat. Their talisman, László Nagy, was heavy on his feet and far from his usual threatening self, and the same can be said of most other players.
Icelandic coach, Alfred Gíslason, said after the match that his team had finally shown their true face and that he was very relieved. It would be nice to go to sleep with a smile on his face. He will not have been alone, because Iceland did Sweden and Germany a big favour. Now their match will be about which one follows France into the semi-finals.
