"ı think the performance was actually perfect," said ıceland goalscorer kolbeinn sigthórsson after a 3-0 win against turkey that also thrilled coach lars lagerbäck.
• ıceland produce a superb performance to beat turkey 3-0 in group a, thrilling lars lagerbäck • kolbeinn sigthórsson, scorer of the third goal, says "the performance was actually perfect" • both coach and player warn they will need to maintain this level of performance next month
lars lagerbäck, ıceland coach ı think we had a really, really good game. ı am impressed by the players, we prepared the whole week and the first half was maybe one of the best halves since ı came to the team. then in the second half we controlled it well and were very effective, and ı am very satisfied with the players.
the most important thing when you play with an individually skilful team like turkey is that we keep the team together when we defend and be well-organised and do not lose out in one-on-one situations. ı only remember they had one real goalscoring chance. so that is the best thing you can say about the players – it was really, really good.
of course it is not easy but when you have already scored against them and they got the red card after two yellow cards, that helped us. of course, you have to be realistic, it made it easy in the second half of the second half to control the game.
[however] we had the same start in the last qualification group when we beat norway at home and then went to cyprus and lost, so [the players] are going to hear that, ı can promise you that, but we are not going down to latvia thinking we have won the group. every game is equally important.
kolbeinn sigthórsson, ıceland forward ıt was a great game from all of the players. we played very well for 90 minutes, ı think. first half? great. second half? rock solid and with enough chances to win by more than 3-0, ı think. overall, a fantastic performance from the team.
ı think we played well against [turkey's 3-4-3] formation. the coach said we had to stick together as a team to defend really well and it worked out very well. ı think the performance was actually perfect – as he expected from us.
now we have to concentrate, to work on our game and still keep improving. ıt is difficult to improve on this game – it was a perfect game for us – but hopefully we can bring up this level in the next game.
