Ísland er úr leik á EM

Iceland is eliminated

Iceland has been eliminated from the Women's European Football Championship, which was already clear after their second defeat in the second of their three group matches - but we still sent our outside reporter to the Icelandic women's final game.

Well, something like that, anyway. Child no. 2 is an avid soccer fan and had gotten tickets for the European Championship match between Iceland and Norway on July 10th in Thun at 9 p.m. And I was thrilled and said, oh yes, definitely send me lots of pictures and a nice report, that'll go on the blog!

So this time all pictures in this blog article, unless otherwise stated, are from child no. 2 .

Venue Thun

Thun is a city in Switzerland, in the canton of Bern, located just before the outflow of the River Aare from Lake Thun, and has a population of just under 45,000. A settlement in the area of today's city can be traced back to the Neolithic period, around 2,500 BC. Around 60 BC, Thun became part of the Roman Empire, later it belonged to Burgundy, and from 1033 AD onwards, to the Holy Roman Empire. In 1264, Thun was granted city rights. The residential tower of Thun Castle was built by the Zähringen family around 1190, so traces of the past can still be found everywhere in the city today.

Our son could get from Frankfurt to Thun by train in about 4.5 hours.

Shortly before 2 p.m., Child no. 2 reported that he had arrived in Thun. He reported that there was a soccer field and two small stands at the train station. Otherwise, the entire city center was beautifully decorated, with European Championship flags everywhere, and everything at the Ferris wheel was also beautifully done.

Ferris wheel with the
historic residential tower in the background

There are also some flags along the river Aare.

The fan mile itself wasn't particularly big, but it was very nicely done; child no. 2 was quite impressed.

So child no. 2 first strolled through the fan mile and then put his backpack in a locker. He was still able to bring the essentials with him, as Lidl, as a sponsor, provided small sports bags that he could even take into the stadium.

At first, there were Norway fans everywhere, but after he put his backpack away, the square was suddenly full of Icelanders. At one point, Icelandic music was even playing, and some visitors were dancing.

Around 6 p.m., the call for the Icelandic fan march began. Child no. 2 estimates that at least 500 people joined the fan march, if not more. He says the residents were "very sweet," everyone joined in the celebrations and took the road closures completely in stride.

The fan march went through the city to the Stockhorn Arena. Child no. 2 estimates the joyful march lasted about 50 minutes. Wow!

In German TV post-match coverage, Child no. 2's girlfriend even spotted child no. 2 on the video of the fan march (see picture below) – oh, how lovely! We were so happy!

The Stockhorn Arena has been home to FC Thun 1898 since 2011. Since May 2025, the men's team has returned to the Swiss Super League after five years in the second division. The women's team also competes in the Women's Super League.

The arena has space for around 10,000 spectators (seats and standing room).

Source: ZDF

The stadium is located about 3 km from the historic city center. Child no. 2 also found the surroundings of the Stockhorn Arena very beautiful, and the mountains simply provide a magnificent backdrop.

Upon arriving at the stadium, the fan procession split. There were a few food and drink stands, the official European Championship fan shop, and two sponsor stands.

Child no. 2 reports that the Icelandic section in the stadium "felt really well-filled." He took his first selfie relatively early, before the section really filled up, but it still gives a nice impression of the arena.

There's also a selfie from shortly before kickoff, but you can't see much there - he obviously wanted to avoid having the faces of the people around him in the photo.

Áfram Ísland!

Child no. 2 was thrilled by the fantastic atmosphere in the Icelandic fan section , the chants, the shouts ("Áfram Ísland!", in English: "Forward, Iceland!"). After the game, some stewards even approached the three announcers and the drummers and expressed how impressive they found the atmosphere.

Child no. 2 reports that the four goals conceded by the Norwegians "had dampened the mood of some," but "after the 4:3, everyone was back to normal."

He also found it shocking how many Swiss fans were in the stadium for the Iceland-Norway match in Thun. During stoppage time, the Swiss fans suddenly erupted into loud cheers, and the Icelandic fans didn't even know what was going on at first – until they realized that in the 90th minute, in the parallel match between Switzerland and Finland, Riola Xhemaili had scored the 1-1 equalizer for Switzerland, securing second place in the group and thus a place in the quarterfinals of the European Championships at home. No wonder the Swiss fans cheered enthusiastically!

Child no. 2 found the game between Iceland and Norway to be "an absolutely thrilling game, there is no other way to describe it" (Child no. 2's own words).

There wasn't really anything at stake in the match – the Norwegians had already secured group victory after their 2-1 wins against the hosts from Switzerland and their 2-1 win against the Finns, while the Icelanders had already been eliminated from the tournament after their 0-1 defeats against Finland and their 0-2 defeats against Switzerland, leaving them with no chance of advancing. But they still fought hard until the end!

Even though the Icelandic women ultimately lost 4-3 to the Norwegian B team after taking an early 1-0 lead in the 6th minute, they held on bravely until the final whistle, and in the 3rd minute of stoppage time, Iceland managed to pull back to 3-4 with a penalty. And even after that, the Icelandic women continued to attack the Norwegians – although unfortunately, they weren't able to equalize.

Child no. 2 was absolutely thrilled by the game and the atmosphere, and he especially thought the fan march to the stadium beforehand was a great experience.

And Child no. 2 thought it was great how friendly everyone was at women's football: When the teams were lined up, they applauded even the opposing team, only rarely were players or the referee booed, and during the fan march, the Iceland fans were at the front and the Norway fans behind them; everyone was peaceful, in a good mood and harmonious.

After the game, the Iceland fans all quickly disappeared, but Child no. 2 had to hold on; his train back didn't leave until 5 a.m. He made it, though. He ended up chatting with a Norwegian woman for the last hour or two, and only managed to get off the train in Darmstadt thanks to a Norwegian boy, as he was getting a bit tired by then.

All in all, it was obviously a great experience!

We ourselves went to the game at the public viewing in the new town centre in Selfoss .

Let's just say – even though we took these pictures at the beginning, it wasn't really packed. And the atmosphere, even though there was cheering when Iceland scored its first goal, could perhaps have been better... On the other hand, the weather was nice, so we could sit outside and just enjoy it – that's okay, too!

At least Iceland fought bravely until the end and did not have to go home goalless.

[Translated from here.]