Vikingur Reykjavik took a historic victory in the Conference League.
Vikingur Reykjavik made Icelandic football history by defeating Belgian Cercle Brugge 3–1 in the men’s Conference League league stage match.
Swedish According to Fotbollskanalen it is the first time that an Icelandic team celebrates a match victory in the group stage of a UEFA club competition or the current league stage.
In the opening round of the Conference League, Vikingur suffered a dull 0-4 away loss to Cypriot Omonia, but in their home match against Cercle, it was on the neck.
Although Cercle’s Belgian top Kazeem Olaigbe gave the away team the lead in the 16th minute. Ari Sigurpalsson equalized in the very next minute.
The midfielder who fouled the penalty kick at the end of the opening period Danijel Djuric made up for his mistake by scoring the winning goal in the 76th minute. Gunnar Vatnhamar embellished the readings in the 83rd minute.
Vikingur’s match lineup consisted of only Icelandic players, with the exception of two Danes and one Faroese.
Vikingur progressed to the league stage of the Conference League on a fairly easy path. The team defeated Egnatia Rrogozhine from Albania, Flora from Estonia and UE Santa Coloma from Andorra in the qualifying round.
The Faroe Islands made it first
Last year, Färsaari football history was made in the Conference League, when the local Klaksvik reached one win and a total of four points in the group stage. Iceland’s Breidablik, on the other hand, stayed in the zero club in their own group last season.
In the decisive qualifying round of the conference league in August, HJK, who just knocked out Klaksvik, will face Belarusian Dinamo Minsk in their second match of the league stage. The match starts in Helsinki at 22:00. HJK opened the league stage by suffering a 0-3 loss to Lugano in Switzerland.
All tonight’s Europa League results can be found on this link, and Conference League results tracking on this link.