Postcard from Iceland as Breidablik extinguish Hoops Champions League ambitions

Team lineups and images from a trip to the south coast of Iceland

Team lineups and images from a trip to the south coast of Iceland Credit: Macdara Ferris (ETPhotos)

Macdara Ferris reports from Kopavogur in Iceland

The volcano eruption south of Reykjavik captured the attention of everyone in Iceland this week – with the live stream of the bubbling magma a fixture on the TV screens.

Meanwhile the Champions League fixture happening on Tuesday wasn’t one that was going to be news to the travelling tourists on the island – mostly Americans it seems – but the game was a 2,000 or so sellout for Breidablik.

I travelled over to Iceland to combine some sightseeing (the south coast Iceland tour comes highly recommended by me) and to cover the game for extratime.com.

I also ended up covering for a number of other Irish media outlets as press resources were at a premium with half of the Irish football media rightly in Australia to cover the Girls in Green.

Captain's run

For the Icelandic champions, the match was a big deal with their skipper Hoskuldur Gunnlaugsson telling this reporter on the eve of the match that it was the biggest game in the club’s history.

The captain runs a bakery and I should really enquired had they a butcher or candlestick maker in their part-time squad but it was hard to recognise this well drilled team being as part-time when you saw their play on the pitch on Tuesday.



I spent Monday in Kopavogur, the home town for Breidablik which is a short bus ride south of Reykjavik. I attended  their press event in the morning and Rovers’ one in the early evening.

It was all very relaxed and the friendly club officials facilitated me sitting down on my own to chat with their manager Oskar Thorvaldsson and their captain and I also got the chance to have a look at their excellent facilities.

They have a newly laid astro surface with an inbuilt sprinkler system in their 3,000 capacity stadium.

Adjacent to the venue, they have two massive multi-purpose sports halls and four grass pitches. League of Ireland Director Mark Scanlon was in Iceland for the game and to meet with their football association to get information that can help with the FAI’s infrastructure plans.

The Hoops trained early Monday evening and I sat with Stephen Bradley in the dugout to preview the game.

Jog on



Afterwards I walked up the hill to get the number 2 bus back into Reykjavik only to be passed by Bradley and Stephen McPhail who were jogging the 7km back to their team hotel.

Having lost the first leg 1-0 in Tallaght, Shamrock Rovers needed to make history if they were to progress as they’d never overcome a first leg deficit in Europe to win a tie and they didn’t do so on this occasion.

However history was made in another way. For the first time a League of Ireland side had VAR checking on a couple of crucial decisions during the game.

First Rory Gaffney had the ball in the back of the net with VAR backing up the late offside flag. Then the Swedish referee Adam Ladeback was called to the VAR monitor to review a Breidablik handball.

A penalty was awarded that Graham Burke slotted home for his eighth European goal to move him solo in fourth place in the all-time European LOI scorers now above Billy Dixon and Christy Fagan and only behind Jason Byrne (10), Glenn Crowe (11) and David McMillan (14).

Just over 100 Shamrock Rovers supporters came over for the game. Numbers were down no doubt due the expense of the trip (how about they eye watering cost of €19 for a coffee and sambo in a coffee shop) and the fact Rovers played here six seasons ago.

However there was also the view that there would be a few more away trips to sign up for but that opinion may have changed after the Hoops learned their opponents for next week in the Europa Conference League qualifiers.

Ferencvaros suffered a shock defeat to KI Klasvik from the Faroe Islands on Wednesday evening and so Rovers will face the five-in-a-row Hungarian champions next week and a team who beat Rovers 4-1 on aggregate last year in the Europa League play-off.

After the game it was a disappointed Stephen Bradley who sat in the dugout giving his view of the match. While acknowledging his team had conceded “awful” goals he was gracious in defeat noting “the better team won over both legs. We didn't do enough.”

He must pick up his team up not only for next week’s Europa Conference League game but the FAI Cup match in Dundalk this coming Sunday.

Fly on

With UEFA allowing teams to fly commercial at this stage of qualification, the Fly Play airlines flight schedule worked out well for Breidablik coming to Dublin to reduce their costs.

Rovers meanwhile paid a multiple of their costs to fly on a charter which required them to stay the night of the match.

A flight back with that plane required an airport to be available for an emergency landing en-route but they were all closed at that time – the Hoops had enquired could they pay to keep them open but to no avail.

As it was they flew out at 8am on Wednesday morning having to put their Champions League disappointment behind them.

This reporter came back later in the morning via Icelandic air and did a great view of the smoke coming from the Litli-Hrútur after take off, all less than 24 hours after Breidablik had extinguished Rovers’ Champions League ambitions.

About Macdara Ferris

Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile