Anguish for North
Just like Latvia at the weekend they were undone by an own goal in a group F encounter.
It was Keith Gillespie’s turn to rue his bad luck a minute from time last night with the touch which sealed a victory for Iceland.
In Latvia Chris Baird’s own goal had sealed a narrow win for the hosts.
You had to feel for Northern Ireland as they raised their game after a bad start. They almost made the breakthrough inside the first minute with Warren Feeney testing goalkeeper Arni Arason with a fierce shot.
However Iceland took the lead after just six minutes when Northern Ireland were caught cold.
A swift move saw Gunnar Thorvaldsson deliver a good ball into the area and Armann Bjornsson was the first to react and smashed a shot beyond goalkeeper Maik Taylor and into the roof of the net.
Northern Ireland hit back in the 15th minute when Chris Brunt delivered a corner to the back post.
Jonny Evans escaped his marker to flick in a header that was deflected to safety.
Northern Ireland should have equalised three minutes later when Evans cleared the bar with his close range shot after Arason pushed away a free kick from Brunt.
Nigel Worthington’s side finally drew level in the 71st minute thanks to Healy’s 12th goal of the campaign.
The Fulham striker scored coolly from the penalty spot after being upended by Ragnar Sigurdsson.
That conversion took his tally to 32 goals from 59 games – and the equaliser was no more than Northern Ireland deserved.
But then with a minute of the 90 minutes to go they were undone when Gillespie put the ball into his own net, under pressure from Gudjohnsen after Gretar Steinsson played the ball in.
Arason, Kristjan Orn Sigurdsson, Ragnar Sigurdsson, Ingimarsson, Hreidarsson, Arnason, Vidarsson, Steinsson, Hallfredsson, Thorvaldsson, Bjornsson.
Taylor, Baird, Duff, Evans, McCartney, Gillespie, Clingan, Davis, Brunt, Healy, Feeney.
Yuri Baskakov (Russia).
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