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For the first time in their history, Iceland were playing in the World Cup. The small nation is not expecting much from the first-ever campaign. In Group D, they face Argentina, Nigeria, and Croatia. All their opponents are noticeably stronger and it will be hard to envisage Iceland making it to the Round of 16. However, in the team's opening match against Argentina, they held the South Americans to a crucial draw, pocketing a valuable point from the match. If they can beat either Croatia or Nigeria, it is possible for Heimir Hallgrímsson's men to advance.
Jorge Sampaoli named a strong starting eleven for his side. Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria had scored a combined 83 international goals which were more than the goals scored by the whole Iceland team. With Sergio Aguero also in the line-up, Argentina looked extremely strong in terms of attack. It did not take long for the deadlock to be broken as Aguero scored a wonderful goal from open play. In the three World Cup competitions that the Manchester City forward has participated, it was his first time scoring and he would be hoping that many more would come his way.
Iceland had come a long way before the team made it into the World Cup. With a population size of just 334,000, the country became the smallest nation to play in the competition. The team endured a difficult afternoon as they played against a talented Argentinian side. Ultimately, the team can be glad that their game plan succeeded and hopes of advancing remain. Here are three takeaways from Iceland's draw with Argentina.
#3 Iceland does not need possession to get a positive result
Argentina dominated possession and by the end of the first half, the South Americans had 80% possession of the ball. Despite having so many more shots, the score was level at 1-1. The Icelanders sat behind the ball throughout the match and soaked up all the pressure. They packed everyone in the midfield and the backline, limiting the space that the Argentines had.
Whenever Messi and his team-mates had the ball, Iceland would be sure to close down on them. Regardless of the number of fouls they had to commit, the whole team only had one aim. The aim was to keep their opponents at bay. Eventually, things worked their way and Iceland received an invaluable point from the match.
The Icelanders, themselves, had been lucky. The team was not given many chances to get into their opponent's half, but they moved the ball quickly and caught Argentina on the counter-attack. It did not take long for Finnbogason to equalize for his side and that was the final goal of the match. The 29-year-old forward wrote his name into history, becoming the first Iceland international player to score in the World Cup.
#2 Argentina's defence needs improvements
The Argentine defenders must have been counting themselves lucky. Gylfi Sigurðsson had not been sharp with his set-pieces which rarely troubled the defenders and their goalkeeper. Even when Iceland pushed forward with their counter-attacks, the Scandinavian nation pulled off quite a number of stray and long shots. Argentina could really have conceded more than a single goal. According to Opta statistics, Iceland failed to register a single shot in the second half and this shows that the team simply did not give Argentina much problem. If they did like in the first half, the Argentines could suffer badly.
As a whole, La Albiceleste's defence looked uncertain and unsure of what's going on. The defenders panicked as soon as they were unable to clear the ball. Even though the most experienced international players on the team were the defenders, the likes of Nicolas Otamendi and Marcus Rojo were unable to make much of a difference.
At the same time, the full-backs seem to be unsupportive of their side's attack, leaving all the job to the midfielders and forwards. If that is Argentina's style of playing, then the defenders would have to make sure that they remain alert throughout the match. There had been too many occasions where the Argentines were not pressing the Icelanders tight enough, giving their opponents to quickly turn over the possession and spark an attack.
#1 Lionel Messi unable to lead Argentina to victory
It was certainly not Messi's day. After Cristiano Ronaldo's hattrick against Spain last nights, fans are eagerly awaiting the response of the Barcelona man. Messi had lots of possession of the ball. In the early stages of the match, he was ruling the midfield, creating chances for his team-mates, getting the rest of his team to move into the box and press up high. Iceland eventually found a way to subdue his influence and Messi had fewer chances to shine.
Despite having fewer opportunities from open play, Iceland continuously gave away free-kicks in dangerous positions of their own half. Messi had the chance to step up, but he failed to live up to expectations. The best chance to get his name onto the scoresheet was through a penalty kick awarded by the Polish referee. The left-footer's strike went to the bottom of the left-hand side of the goal and was eventually saved by Hannes Þór Halldórsson.
Back in June 2016, it was the first time the captain missed from the spot when he played against Chile. This time around, Messi could not convert from the spot on the big stage and failed to secure all three points for his home nation. He had more shots than he had in previous appearances in the World Cup, but Messi just could not find the net.
