Football Results

In the first match in the Group D vice-champion of the world Argentina will face one of two debutants at World Cups, Iceland. Of course, that fact clearly tells us who is the favourite here. Two years ago at the Euro in France the Icelanders showed that are not naïve at all, given they reached the quarter-finals despite playing for the first time ever at European Championships. Let’s add that this is the first match ever between the two teams.

Argentina

Vice-champions of the world are in Russia to rectify the mishap from Brazil four years ago when they lost to Germany in the final of World Cup only after extra-time. That was the third lost final for this generation led by Messi in last four years. In 2015 and 2016 Argentina lost two times in a row to Chile in finals of Copa America, which even forced Messi to retire from the national team. Later on he changed his mind under pressure of Argentinian public, and now in Russia he will have probably the last chance to win so much desired title of World Champion.

Still, results that Argentina made in South American qualifications are everything but not encouraging, as they qualified for Russia only in the last round, while after that they played variably in the preparation period given they won Russia, Italy and Haiti and lost to Nigeria and Spain, which steamrolled them in March this year by even 6-1. Charismatic manager Sampaoli still believes that he can make a good result in Russia with this generation of players and he stood firm in his decision to not invite several famous names to the national team, including excellent Icardi. Let’s add that first goalkeeper Romero and midfielders Lanzini were dropped out during the preparation period.

Probable lineups Argentina: Caballero – Salvio, Otamendi, Rojo, Tagliafico – Mascherano, Biglia – Meza, Messi, di Maria – Aguero

Iceland

What to say about Iceland except that they still surprise football fans with great results, given that after their debut at European Championship in France two years ago they qualified for the first time ever for the World Cup. The Icelanders left a very good impression in France as they reached even the quarter-finals when they were eliminated by the host team, but not before they made a great sensation in the round of 16 when they eliminated England. Qualifications for the World Cup in Russia confirmed that success at the Euro 2016 wasn’t an accident, as they won the first place in their qualifying group with seven wins, one draw and two defeats.

Their fans are worried as Iceland won none out of six friendlies played after the qualifications and it drew just with Qatar and Ghana several days ago. On the other hand the Icelanders lost to the Czech Republic, Mexico, Peru and Norway, which made very busy their manager Hallgrimsson during the preparation for Russia given that he had to work hard to improve atmosphere in the team. True, he can be pleased with fact that his team rarely ends a match without scoring a goal, which suggests that now against Argentina the Icelanders will not limit themselves on defence.

Probable lineups Iceland: Halldorsson – Saevarsson, R. Sigurdsson, Ingason, Magnusson – J. Gudmundsson, Hallfredsson, Gunnarsson, Bjarnason – G. Sigurdsson – Finnbogason

Verdict:

At the first glance vice-champions of the world, led by Messi, shouldn’t have too much trouble to dispatch a debutant at the World Cup, but we should bear in mind that Argentina struggled lately. Since the Icelanders are very combative and aggressive we believe that the most realistic outcome of the match is plenty of goals instead of Argentinian victory.

Pick: over 2.5 goals 1.94 - 94/100 @1XBet