No pressure on Iceland, insists Sigurdsson

23rd June

Swansea City's Gylfi Sigurdsson insists Iceland will head into their Euro 2016 last 16 tie with England free from the weight of expectation.
The tournament's smallest nation secured their place in the knockout stages thanks to a 2-1 win over Austria in their final game in Group F.
A late goal sent Iceland through as the group's runners-up, which earned them a tie against England - who finished second in Wales' group - next Monday.
And Sigurdsson, who scored Iceland's goal in the 1-1 draw with group winners Hungary last Saturday, feels his team can express themselves without feeling any pressure against Roy Hodgson's side.



"We have no pressure on us, that's the main thing," said Sigurdsson. "If you look at England, if they were to lose to us there will he headlines back in England.
"We're just here to enjoy the tournament and the last 16. It's an amazing feeling and we just want to keep going.
"We are aware that we are probably the second team everyone supports in the tournament.
"We're a small nation that nobody expects anything of so we want to keep those people happy and go a little bit further in the tournament. We are the same size as Coventry. We are still underdogs."



Having progressed to Euro 2016 via a qualifying group in including Czech Republic, Turkey and Holland - the latter missed out on the tournament in France - Iceland have shown their quality against some of the continent's finest talent.
They also held off Cristiano Ronald's Portugal in qualifying for the last 16, and Sigurdsson believes the message to his team-mates will be simple - keep calm!
"We've played big teams before. Portugal, Holland, the Czech Republic and Turkey. We were calm and got the job done," said Sigurdsson.
"They (England) have a very good team and have got through a tough group, without playing their best football, but that just shows how good they are. There are not many weaknesses.
"Their best is probably yet to come. We will have to defend for long periods against them, but we have shown before that we are capable of it.
"But we want to keep the ball a little bit more, make a good start and save some energy."