Joy spread through the squad and to pubs and homes throughout Finland on Sunday as the final seconds ticked away to a 6-1 win over their Swedish neighbours. The occasion marks only the second time ever that Finland has taken the title in the event and is the country’s first reign in over a decade; the last Finnish championship title came in 1995 in an emotional victory, also against the Swedes.

The first goal came from Edmonton Oilers star Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, who is of Finnish decent, which put Tre Kroner on the board after almost 30 minutes of scoreless play in Bratislava, Slovakia. However, just seconds before the second period came to a close, Jarkko Immonen evened up the score and pushed the competition up to fever pitch.

The following two goals by Petteri Nokelainen and Niko Kapanen came within three minutes of one another and proved too much for a Swedish recovery. Additional goals came via Janne Pesonen and Mika Pyorala, as well as Antti Pihlstrom during the final minute.

The victory has prompted massive celebration among the Finns, as the nation hopes the championship is the first step on the ladder to match the eight titles held by Sweden. Finland has six silver medals, however, in addition to second place medals from the 1998 and 2006 Olympics.

CNN reported that the victory is all the more impressive because Loeb effectively served as the road sweeper, mowing down the snowy roads as the first man out on those legs of the rally. This should have helped his competition with their lap times, but Loeb went into the final day with a healthy 15-second lead over Finland’s Hirvonen.

Hirvonen did his best to shave seconds off each of the final day’s six stages, but in the end Loeb kept his cool and emerged victorious with a 9.8 second advantage. Winning Rally Norway marks the 49th WRC victory for the five-time world champion.

Loeb wasn’t entirely confident coming into the Scandinavian event since he was well aware of Ford’s reputation on snowy and icy roads. The last time the rally was held in Norway, in 2007, Ford swept the entire podium, so the victory this time around was all the more delightful for Loeb.

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.