Viking invasion heads for Euro 2016 in France — without jerseys

Team jerseys are almost sold out, there is barely a seat left on a plane to Paris and the country's one fan zone has tripled in size -- Iceland is feverishly preparing for its surprise Euro 2016 quarter-final against France on Sunday.

One sentence has been on everyone's lips in Reykjavik in recent days -- "Once in a lifetime".

Iceland, with a population of 330,000, celebrated just qualifying for a European Championships for the first time, but very few people here thought the team would knock out England and reach the last eight of the tournament.

And they are enjoying every second of it.

In the Joi Utherji sports shop in the capital, the owner Valdimar Magnusson was anxiously waiting for a delivery of team shirts after almost all his stock was snapped up in Euro fever -- and he was worried they will not arrive until after Sunday's match.
"A shipment expected today somehow didn't come. It's stuck somewhere in Germany, I think. So no more shirts until Monday," he told AFP.

"We have already sold a few thousand shirts. And lots of hats, and scarves, and everything related to the national team."

Italian brand Errea, which makes the shirts, said it was doing its best -- but its exports chief Fabrizio Taddei admitted he could never have imagined demand would be so great when the tournament kicked off.

"We're talking thousands and thousands of shirts that have been sold. And we're working night and day to supply Iceland," Taddei told AFP. 

A new Viking invasion of Europe was taking place on Saturday — but this time by plane rather than sea.

However, finding a flight to France from the North Atlantic island in time for Sunday's game was proving complicated.
Many fans were landing in other countries and will continue their journeys by train or car.

Ludvik Kristinnsson was making the journey with three friends by travelling to Brussels and then on to France. Sadly he will not have an Iceland jersey to wear.

"It happens. That's it and I'm trying to just call my friends to see if they have some extra," he said.

On Saturday, Rutur Snorrason was at Reykjavik's international airport Keflavik waiting for his flight -- and he had managed to borrow a shirt.

"It's going to be the toughest game ever for the Icelandic team. But we have shown we can do anything.

"I had to borrow my shirt, because everything was sold out," he said.

- 'Why sit with the VIPs?' -

President Gudni Johannesson, a 48-year-old history professor who was elected on June 25 in the midst of Iceland's giant-killing run, also intends to be at the Stade de France.
He told CNN he would be eschewing the offer of a seat with the VIPs.

"I will be in the stands with the fans and I will wear my Iceland shirt," he told CNN. "Why would I go in the VIP room and sip champagne when I can do that anywhere in the world?"

Gunnar Lar Gunnarsson, who works for the company which supplies the giant screen for the Reykjavik fan zone, said the area would be extended again for Sunday's match to allow up to 30,000 people, or one tenth of the population, to watch.

"I hope for 30,000 people! But I would think we will have somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000," he said.

When expectations were low and the group matches were taking place, a small area was created with space for several thousand people.

As the team qualified from its group, it was not just the coaches and the players that had to think bigger -- so did the fan zone's organisers.

For the quarter-final with England — a 2-1 victory that will go down in giantkilling history regardless of what happens on Sunday  — an area for 10,000 people was built in Arnarholl Park.

It has the added advantage of being on a slope and having a view of the sea.

"I've met people that had never watched football. They don't like football, but everyone is a football fan in Iceland today," Gunnarsson said.

Source: AFP