Football World Cup 2018 / Iceland

Football World Cup 2018 : Iceland
Trainer	Heimir Hallgrímsson
captain	Aron Gunnarsson
Qualified as	Winner Europe Group I
World rankings before the tournament	22nd
Tournament result	Out after the preliminary round
Games won	0
Games tie	1
Games lost	2
Gates	2: 5

This article covers the Icelandic national soccer team at the 2018 soccer world cup . Iceland took part in the finals for the first time and, after participating in the European Championship in 2016, for the second time in a major football tournament. Iceland replaced Trinidad & Tobago as a World Cup country with the fewest inhabitants and with 334,000 inhabitants was the first World Cup participant with fewer than 1 million inhabitants.

qualification

The team qualified for the World Cup in Russia through the qualifying matches of the European football association UEFA .

Games

Iceland met in Group I against Croatia , the Ukraine , Turkey , Finland and Kosovo , which were subsequently assigned to the group after joining FIFA. In the ten encounters that resulted, the Icelandic team won seven. Once - in the first game - they drew and two games were lost. Iceland fought head-to-head with Croatia for a long time, but Ukraine and Turkey also had a chance of winning the group or at least second place before the last two games. The decisive factor was the Icelanders' victory in Turkey at the same time The Croatians lost points against Finland. This meant that the Icelanders had to secure the group victory in their own hands on the last day of the match against bottom group Kosovo. Ukraine then gambled away second place by losing to Croatia at home.

In total, national coach Heimir Hallgrímsson , who will be solely responsible for the post after the European Championship, deployed 22 players, 18 of whom were already in the European Championship squad . No qualified team could manage with fewer players. Three players - Birkir Már Sævarsson , Gylfi Sigurðsson and Ragnar Sigurðsson - were used in all ten games. The top scorers were Gylfi Sigurðsson with four and Alfreð Finnbogason with three goals, which he scored in the first three games. A total of eight Icelanders scored at least one goal, and they also benefited from an own goal by a Turkish player. The 16 goals are the lowest number among all European group winners.

date	Venue	host		guest	Result	Goal scorers for Iceland
09/05/2016	Kiev	Ukraine	-	Iceland	1: 1 (1: 1)	Alfreð Finnbogason (5th)
10/06/2016	Reykjavík	Iceland	-	Finland	3: 2 (1: 2)	Kári Árnason (37th), Alfreð Finnbogason (90th), Ragnar Sigurðsson (90 + 5th)
10/09/2016	Reykjavík	Iceland	-	Turkey	2: 0 (2: 0)	Ömer Toprak (41st / own goal), Alfreð Finnbogason (44th)
11/12/2016	Zagreb	Croatia	-	Iceland	2: 0 (1: 0)
March 24, 2017	Shkodra	Kosovo	-	Iceland	1: 2 (0: 2)	Björn Sigurðarson (25th), Gylfi Sigurðsson (35th / penalty)
06/11/2017	Reykjavík	Iceland	-	Croatia	1: 0 (0: 0)	Hörður Magnússon (90.)
02.09.2017	Tampere	Finland	-	Iceland	1: 0 (1: 0)
05.09.2017	Reykjavík	Iceland	-	Ukraine	2: 0 (0: 0)	Gylfi Sigurðsson (47th, 66th)
06.10.2017	Eskişehir	Turkey	-	Iceland	0: 3 (0: 2)	Jóhann Guðmundsson (32nd), Birkir Bjarnason (39th), Kári Árnason (49th)
09.10.2017	Reykjavík	Iceland	-	Kosovo	2: 0 (1: 0)	Gylfi Sigurðsson (40.), Jóhann Guðmundsson (68.)

Final table of the qualifying round

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Iceland	10	7th	1	2	016: 700	+9	22nd
2.	Croatia	10	6th	2	2	015: 400	+11	20th
3.	Ukraine	10	5	2	3	013: 900	+4	17th
4th	Turkey	10	4th	3	3	014:130	+1	15th
5.	Finland	10	2	3	5	009:130	−4	09
6th	Kosovo	10	0	1	9	003:240	−21	01

preparation

Games

date	Result	opponent	venue	Icelandic goal scorers
November 8, 2017	1: 2	Czech Republic	Doha	Kjartan Finnbogason
November 14, 2017	1: 1	Qatar	Doha	Viðar Kjartansson
January 11, 2018	6-0	Indonesia	Sleman	Andri Rúnar Bjarnason (30th), Kristján Finnbogason (47th), Óttar Magnús Karlsson (66th), Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson (69th), Hjörtur Hermannsson (80th), Hólmar Eyjólfsson (82nd)
January 14, 2018	4: 1	Indonesia	Jakarta	Albert Guðmundsson (45th, 66th / penalty, 72nd), Arnór Smárason (59th)
23 March 2018	0: 3	Mexico	Santa Clara ( USA )
March 27, 2018	1: 3	Peru	Harrison ( USA )	Jón Guðni Fjóluson (22.)
2nd June 2018	2: 3	Norway	Reykjavík	Alfreð Finnbogason (30th / penalty), Gylfi Sigurðsson (70.)
7th June 2018	2: 2	Ghana	Reykjavík	Kári Árnason (6th), Alfreð Finnbogason (40th)

Remarks:

• Teams in italics are not qualified for the World Cup
• In the games against Indonesia only Arnór Ingvi Traustason and Ólafur Ingi Skúlason were used from among the players who were used in the World Cup qualifiers.

Quarter

The team's quarters were the Resort Center Nadezhda in Gelendzhik , where the team trained in the Olymp Stadium.

Squad

The roster was announced on May 11th. In addition, a list of 12 reserve players was drawn up. Players marked with "*" were also in the squad for the European Championship 2016, the Icelanders' first tournament participation.

Item	No.	Surname	society	birth date	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	debut	Last use
goal	12	Frederik Schram	FC Roskilde	01/19/1995	4th	0	2017	02.06.2018
	01	Hannes Þór Halldórsson *	Randers FC	04/27/1984	49	0	2011	07.06.2018	3
	13	Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson	FC Nordsjælland	02/18/1995	3	0	2017	03/23/2018
Defense	23	Ari Freyr Skúlason *	Sporting Lokeren	05/14/1987	56	0	2009	07.06.2018	2
	02	Birkir Már Sævarsson *	Valur Reykjavík	11/11/1984	79	1	2007	03/27/2018	3		1
	15th	Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson	Levski Sofia	08/06/1990	10	1	2012	07.06.2018
	18th	Hörður Björgvin Magnússon *	Bristol City	02/11/1993	16	2	2014	02.06.2018	3
	14th	Kári Árnason *	Aberdeen FC	10/13/1982	67	5	2005	07.06.2018	2
	06th	Ragnar Sigurðsson *	FK Rostov	06/19/1986	77	3	2007	07.06.2018	3
	03	Samúel Kári Friðjónsson	Vålerenga Oslo	02/22/1996	4th	0	2018	02.06.2018
	05	Sverrir Ingi Ingason *	FK Rostov	08/05/1993	20th	3	2014	07.06.2018	2
midfield	21st	Arnór Ingvi Traustason *	Malmö FF M	04/30/1993	19th	5	2015	07.06.2018	1
	17th	Aron Gunnarsson *	Cardiff City ↑	04/22/1989	77	2	2008	03/23/2018	3
	08th	Birkir Bjarnason *	Aston Villa	May 27, 1988	67	9	2010	07.06.2018	3
	20th	Emil Hallfreðsson *	Udinese Calcio	06/29/1984	64	1	2005	07.06.2018	2		1
	10	Gylfi Sigurðsson *	Everton FC	09/08/1989	56	17th	2010	07.06.2018	3	1
	07th	Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson *	Burnley FC	October 27, 1990	67	6th	2008	07.06.2018	2
	16	Ólafur Ingi Skúlason	Kardemir Karabükspor ↓	04/01/1983	36	1	2003	07.06.2018
	19th	Rúrik Gíslason	SV Sandhausen	02/25/1988	47	3	2009	07.06.2018	2
Storm	04th	Albert Guðmundsson	PSV Eindhoven M	06/15/1997	5	3	2017	02.06.2018
	11	Alfreð Finnbogason *	FC Augsburg	02/01/1989	47	13	2010	07.06.2018	3	1	1
	09	Björn Bergmann Sigurðarson	FK Rostov	02/26/1991	13	1	2011	07.06.2018	3
	22nd	Jón Daði Böðvarsson *	Reading FC	05/25/1992	38	2	2012	07.06.2018	1
Trainer		Heimir Hallgrímsson		06/10/1967			2016

Remarks:

1. ↑ Numbers according to the official squad list
2. ↑ Clubs in italics play in the season before or during the World Cup in the 2nd division of their country, M = champions in the World Cup year, P = cup winners in the World Cup year, ↑ = the club will play in the 1st division in the next season , ↓ = Club will play in the 2nd division for the next season
3. ↑ ^{a b} Status: June 7, 2018

Finals

Group draw

Moscow Rostov on Don Volgograd Gelendzhik

Iceland's venues and quarters (blue / italic)

For the draw of the qualifying groups on December 1st, Iceland was assigned to pot 3 and in group D they will face vice world champions Argentina , qualifying opponents Croatia and Nigeria . Iceland has played against Croatia six times so far, two games each in the qualifications for the 2006, 2014 and 2018 World Cups. The last one was won, before that four games were lost and one ended in a draw. There was a game against Nigeria that was won 3-0 in 1981. Iceland met Argentina for the first time at the World Cup.

Group stage / group D matches

→ Main article : Football World Cup 2018 / Group D

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Croatia	3	3	0	0	007: 100	+6	09
2.	Argentina	3	1	1	1	003: 500	−2	04th
3.	Nigeria	3	1	0	2	003: 400	−1	03
4th	Iceland	3	0	1	2	002: 500	−3	01

Saturday, June 16, 2018, 4:00 p.m. (3:00 p.m. CEST) in Moscow (Spartak Stadium)
Argentina	-	Iceland	1: 1 (1: 1)	23 ′ Finnbogason
Fri., June 22, 2018, 6:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. CEST) in Volgograd
Nigeria	-	Iceland	2: 0 (0: 0)
Tue., June 26, 2018, 9:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. CEST) in Rostov-on-Don
Iceland	-	Croatia	1: 2 (0: 0)	76 ′ / penalty Sigurðsson

Individual evidence

1. ↑ fifa.com: Iceland is having a huge party
2. ↑ fifa.com: 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia - Team Base Camps
3. ↑ ksi.is: A karla - Hópurinn sem fer á HM í Rússlandi