Iceland was defeated by France 28-23 in the very closely watched final game of the Olympic men’s handball game which brought the country on Sunday morning to a standstill.

Iceland managed to take the lead only for a few minutes at the beginning of the first half but then paid dearly for concentrating on their technique rather than responding to France’s defence.

The Icelandic handball team first appeared at the Summer Olympic Games in 1972 when it came 12th. Beijing 2008 Olympics was their tenth Olympic participation with the best result so far; they came 4th in 1992.

“We are only 300,000 people,” Gudmundur Ingvarsson, president of the Iceland Handball Federation, said. “What do you expect?”

France’s only Olympic medal in this European-dominated sport was a bronze in 1992. They got three gold medals – two in the World Handball Championship (in 1995 and 2001) and one in the European championship (2006).

Iceland has never won a gold medal in any Olympic sport. That includes the Winter Games, despite the seeming advantage of having a winter-sport playing surface in the nation’s name. Iceland has won three Olympic medals in its history, all in individual summer sports — a triple-jump silver in 1956 (Vilhjalmur Einarsson), a judo bronze in 1984 (Bjarni Fridriksson) and a pole-vault bronze in 2000 (Vala Flosadottir).

France leading 15 – 10 during half-time in Beijing and Iceland is not showing their best game against a strong France handball team. France has been showing the best game but Iceland seams to have lost the spirit they have had in this tournament.

France has been playing a very strong defence and while the Icelandic goal-keeper has only saved 2 shots the France keeper has taken 13 shots.

“It was obvious that this was not just another victory when the captain of Iceland’s team handball squad, with a big lead and only 30 seconds left in a semifinal game, put his hands to his face and cried. ” NY Times reports.

The proud but small Island nation in the north is going for their first Olympic gold ever, Iceland has some medals in their collection, but have never had real chance for gold until now.

According to the NY Times the president of Iceland said that this was the biggest moment in Icelandic sport history.

Now Iceland has just France to win and knowing Icelanders the whole cinemas and sport halls will be filled with people watching the game live cheering for their team and fellow country man.

For those that want to buy some memorabilia, items such as the team’s team shirts will be auctioned and all profit will go to good cause – This will be done at the Vodafone dome in Reykjavik Iceland – MBL.is reports.

So far Iceland has three medals in its Olympic history, all in individual sports – The first was in 1956 for triple-jump (Vilhjalmur Einarsson), then a judo bronze in 1984 (Bjarni Fridriksson) and a bronze in year 2000 for pole-vault (Vala Flosadottir).

As Iceland crushes Spain in the men’s handball semi-finals, the players and the country gets huge support for their effort for gold at the Olympics.

Here are some remarks made at Icenews and other media:

“I am one of those 310.000 proud Icelanders. You should also not forget that along the way we have also won the European champions Denmark, the world champions Germany and former Olympic champions Russia. The Vikings from Iceland showed their real face!”

“Here in Sweden we are very excited about Icelands victory in the semifinals. Sweden has no gold in these Olympics and personally I don’t think we’ll get one. But a goldmedal in handball for our brothers in Iceland certainly would ease our pain.”

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The Icelandic men’s handball team played a promising game in the Olympic semi-final at midday today (Icelandic time). In an overly exciting match they managed to beat the Spaniards 36-30 and move on to the final.

Starting the game by five successive scores, they increased the chances of getting Olympic gold medals and no Icelander doubted their victory over Spain although the score difference was equal at times.

Iceland has made it to the Olympic semi-finals once before, but did not win a medal. France defeated Croatia 25-23 in the first semi-final match earlier today.

The final between Iceland and France will be contested on Sunday 24 August.

The goals for Iceland
Gudjón Valur Sigurðsson 7
Logi Geirsson 7
Snorri Steinn Gudjónsson 6
Ólafur Stefansson 5
Asgeir Orn Hallgrímsson 3
Alexander Petersson 2
Sigfús Sigurdsson 2
Ingimundur Ingimundarson 2
Róbert Gunnarsson 2

According to a local newspaper MBL.is Bjorgvin Páll Gustavsson goal keeper of the Icelandic team stopped 18 shots htting the net.

And goals for Spain

Albert Rocas 7
Iker Romero 5
Carlos Prieto 4
Juanín García 4
Jon Belaustegui 3
Rubén Garabaya 3
Alberto Entrerríos 2
Demetrio Lozano 1
Raúl Entrerríos 1

Following Iceland’s 32-30 defeat of Poland early this morning, the country’s Olympic men’s handball team will now take part in the semi finals of the competition.

The parallel quarter final game between Spain and South Korea saw the Spanish win 29-24 and join Iceland in the final four.

Iceland will play Spain at midday (Icelandic time) on Friday. Iceland has made it to the Olympic semi finals once before, but did not win a medal. The other two semi finalists are Croatia and France, who will play each other earlier on Friday. The two winning teams will go head-to-head in the final on Sunday.

The two losing teams will also play each other to decide who walks away with the bronze. Already on record-equalling good form, the Iceland team is in confident mood for Friday. But handball is a lightning quick sport where small mistakes can punish just as much as acts of genius can reward.

Handball coverage will continue Friday on IceNews.

Denmark’s men’s handball team has beaten Germany 27-21, and will therefore join Iceland, South Korea and Russia from Group B in the final eight of the Olympic handball competition. The Danes, South Koreans and Icelanders end the group stage with six points each. South Korea is on top, Denmark second and Iceland third. The World Champions, Germany, are out and Russia advance instead, MBL.is reports.

Iceland’s next game will be against whichever team finishes second in Group A. The way things stand right now, it seems the opponents will either be France or Poland. The two countries have yet to play each other in their final group game. The Poles will secure the top spot with a win.

The Danes sent the Germans home with their six goal victory. Russia and Germany ended with the same number of points; and because the game between the two countries ended in a draw (24-24), all the teams’ competition goals were taken into account. On goal difference, the Russians ended with plus five goals and the Germans with minus four.

The Icelandic men’s handball team defeated Germany yesterday at the Olympics in Beijing. Iceland beat the world champions 33-29 in an exciting game in front of a surprisingly and vocally pro-Icelandic crowd.

Iceland has won both of its opening matches in the Olympic competition so far and will now play Korea tomorrow (Thursday). After victories over Russia and Germany, the Icelandic team will go into the Korea match in confident mood.

However, Korea is also having an impressive championship so far and the South Korea national team is one of the best in Asia. Iceland will not have an easy match.

Icelandic goals in the match: Snorri Steinn Gudjonsson 8, Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson 7, Alexander Pettersson 5, Arnor Atlason, Olafur Stefansson 4, Logi Geirsson 3 and Robert Gunnarsson 2.