Icelandic FA Cup Third Round
Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavik
Admission: 1200 ISK (approx £6.50)
Programme: N/A
Attendance: 619
Match Rating: 2
There are not many times that I would be sufficiently motivated to visit an uninhabited island and go swimming in advance of an evening football match. But then being in Iceland does inspire one to do things out of the ordinary. For this evening’s entertainment, I headed to the national stadium of Iceland, the Laugardalsvollur, to watch an Icelandic FA Cup 3rd Round tie between Fram Reykjavik and I.R.
This game brought together two teams in good form, with Fram having made an excellent start to the league season having won two and drawn two of their opening four league games. IR had made an even better start to their season, having won three and drawn the other of their opening four games, although they play in the second tier of Icelandic football, and so therefore there was the potential for a giantkilling upset at this game.
The Laugardalsvollur, which has a statue of the first ever Icelandic professional football by the main entrance, consists of two modern stands along either length of the pitch. For when the Iceland national team are playing big games, additional temporary stands are installed behind either goal. As the national football stadium doubles up as the national athletics stadium, a running track separates the spectators from the field of play. Behind one of the goals is an attractive mountainous backdrop.
As for the game, Fram dominated from start to finish and always looked like they would comfortably win this game as IR were game enough and battled hard, but very rarely looked a threat going forward. Fram took the lead on 38 minutes, to give a narrow half time lead which did not truly reflect the play of the first half. Fram duly extended their lead shortly after half time, and from then the game became something of a stalemate. IR never really looked like scoring. In fact they did, but not until the stroke of full time and so Fram progressed into the next round. It must be said that there was a poor, disinterested atmosphere at this game, apart from a reasonably sized away following.
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