Argentina Vs Iceland
From South America, Argentina is playing European country Iceland at Otkritie Arena in Russia for the 2018 World Cup on the 16th of June. This will be the 1st time we’ve ever seen these countries play each other!
Argentina
Unbelievably, Argentina only just qualified for the World Cup this year. Starting with the 2-0 home defeat to Ecuador, to the 3-1 win against them in their final game. This would have been the only cup they’ve missed since 1970.
Qualifying Moments
Argentina was lacking in attack without injured Lionel Messi resulting in a 2-0 loss to Ecuador at home in October 2015. Two years later in March, Messi misses the game against Bolivia due to being accused of abusing a linesman. This resulted in a 1-0 defeat to Bolivia, however, FIFA relent in the end and now he is free to play. In October 2017 Messi scored a hat-trick against the must-win away game against Ecuador. This secured Argentina’s place in the World Cup where they rightfully belong.
JORGE SAMPAOLI
Jorge is 57 years old. Taking over from Gerardo Martino and Edgardo Bauza, Sampaoli was the third coach for Iceland’s qualifying campaign. He was in control of the team for the final four games of the qualifiers. (Iceland vs Kosovo, Turkey vs Iceland, Iceland vs Ukraine, Iceland vs Finland). In Chile his intense, high press ways came through for him and Iceland but does he have the players to make that work again?
LIONEL MESSI
Argentina is completely reliant on their captain Lionel Messi who is considered by many as ‘the best’. He almost dragged his team to the 2014 World Cup final on his own and repeating that this year to ensure they qualified this time around also. Argentina only accumulated seven points out of the 10 games he missed. As soon as he was back they managed 21 points out of the ten he played.
ANGEL DI MARIA
Angel di Maria was amongst only one other player to start in all 18 South American rounds. His campaign wasn’t even and he’s been used in a mix of positions. However, as he free to roam around in the last round him and Messi made a fantastic combination.
OTHER NEWS
Martin Demichelis has retired, this was during the campaign. This is on top of another loss to Argentina’s defence with Ramiro Mori’s knee injury. Suffering from ligament damage in his knee from November, Dario Benedetto is to miss out on the Cup also.
Iceland
Iceland has performed extremely well in the qualifiers finishing as the winners of their group. With a population of 339,000 people, they are the smallest nation to ever qualify for the world cup. In comparison to their amazing run last year Iceland had a rusty start this time around. With their players growing in strength they won seven of their ten games, winning every home game.
Qualifying Moments
Iceland very luckily beat Finland 3-2 scoring two goals in injury time back in September 2016. In October 2017 they beat Turkey 3-0 putting them to the top of the group. This was one month after losing to Finland 1-0 which dropped their group position initially. Just before halftime, they broke down Kosovo scoring their second goal after the interval leading to a 2-0 win for Iceland.
HEIMIR HALLGRIMSSON
Heimir is actually a fully qualified Dentist, aged 50 he still runs a clinic in the Westman Islands. He was appointed as an assistant to Lars Lagerback when the Icelandic Football Federation hired him as a national coach in 2011. After failing to qualify for the World Cup, himself and Lagerback signed contracts as joint managers. Then following the resignation of Lagerback Hallgrimsson became the only boss of Iceland’s national team.
GYLFI SIGURDSSON
Gylfi, aged 28 is an attacking midfielder for Iceland and in the Premier League for Everton. During the qualifiers, Sigurdsson was the top scorer for Iceland even following his very quiet start to his Everton career. If Iceland wants to impress the world this summer, he will be vital.
ARNOR INGVI TRAUSTASON
Arnor is the rising star of Iceland. The 24-year-old is one of the most promising young talents of Icelandic football scoring at Euro 2016 against Austria two years ago.
OTHER NEWS
Due to a knee injury in September 2016, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson has barely played since the Euro that year.
PREDICTED LINE-UP
SPORTS OF THE DAYS VERDICT
Iceland has been wiping the field recently playing in outstanding form in the qualifiers, however, we feel Argentina might just bee too good of a team for them. Not only that Iceland aren’t the ones with Messi which we can all understand does not work in their favour.
Google’s win probability is at 71% for Argentina to beat Iceland. The chances of Iceland winning is at just 8% with a 21% probability of it being a draw.
If you would like to see more odds for the game you can see them here
