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Iceland go top with comeback win over Czechs

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Unfancied Iceland moved within touching distance of reaching their first major tournament after Kolbeinn Sigthorsson scored a sublime winner in a 2-1 Euro 2016 qualification victory over the Czech Republic on Friday. Having trailed 1-0, the superb comeback victory puts Iceland top of Group A on 15 points after six games, with the Czechs in second on 13. If points were given for heart and guts, however, they would already be on the plane to the tournament finals in France. The home side dominated the game with their physical play, but Borek Dockal gave the Czech Republic the lead 10 minutes into the second half, thumping home a rising right-foot shot into the top left corner after he was teed up by Tomas Necid. That was the first goal that Iceland had conceded on home soil in the qualifying campaign, but it jolted them into life. Hunting in packs and flying into tackles, they never let the Czechs settle, and they equalised five minutes later when Aron Gunnarsson dived to head home Ari Skulason's lofted ball. Then Lukas Vacha, under pressure on the edge of his area, played a loose pass and Sigthorsson pounced, dancing deftly around Petr Cech and coolly slotting the winner in the 76th minute. "Iceland played well, this is very painful for us," Czech coach Pavel Vrba told a news conference. The Czechs had started brightly, passing the ball fluidly and finding space between the Icelandic lines, while Necid wasted their best chance of the first half, heading a superb cross narrowly wide after 15 minutes. That effort forced the home side into action and all of a sudden Iceland's high-pressure tactics and hard tackling style started to click. The closest the home side came to scoring in the first half was via a brace of Gylfi Sigurdsson free kicks within the space of a few minutes midway through the half, with Cech saving the first and the second flying just over. Iceland continued to bully the Czechs and Johann Gudmundsson could have scored a late third after a lung-bursting dash up the right, but Cech parried the ball away for a corner. The goalkeeper then dashed up the field for a late corner, but even though he got his head to the ball it never threatened to spoil the party in Reykjavik. Seconds later the final whistle went and the celebrations were underway as Iceland's remarkable run continues. (Reporting by Philip O'Connor; editing by Toby Davis)