The Faroe Islands’ 12 points is their best-ever haul in a qualifying competition.
They moved a point behind the Czechs after their 2-1 win, through goals from Hanus Sorensen and Martin Agnarsson.
Both players are younger than 25 and, according to Faero, represent a new face for the national team.
“I’d say they’re power players,” added the KI centre-back. “They have explosiveness, agility, young naiveness, if you can call it that. They basically don’t care who they’re running up against – it’s just water off a duck’s back.
“That’s sometimes what you need. Someone who shows no remorse, no respect when we’re attacking.
“We’ve seen that defending, but now suddenly we’ve got a few profiles on the team who can bite back when we attack – and that’s one of the reasons why we could beat Montenegro 4-0.
“So when we have counter-attacks, I think teams are waking up and thinking ‘OK, this is not just a defending team’.”
Unlike Sorensen and Agnarsson who play professionally in Slovenia and Denmark, Faero combines football with another job.
He works for a furniture store in his native country, where he has just won the league again with KI.
Head coach Eyoun Klakstein used to be a crime writer, while Faero and the team’s other part-time players illustrate just how much of an underdog the Faroe Islands will be when they take on Croatia’s stars, including Luka Modric and Josko Gvardiol, in Rijeka.
“It’s not so much different from what you would imagine if it was a semi-pro team in England,” he said.
“There’s always a few electricians, a few joiners. There’s a teacher, and then something that’s quite popular among young players here is to work in kindergarten because it’s reduced hours and works well with football training.
“There’s also [Arni] Frederiksberg, who scored the penalty against Montenegro. He’s actually the CEO of a wholesale company and they sell loads of food products. One of the products is pizzas, so he’s called the ‘pizza seller’, but he is in fact a CEO.”
