5 least populated countries to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup

Denmark have some quality players at their disposal

#1 Iceland

Iceland became the smallest nation by population to ever clinch a FIFA World Cup berth

With 334k inhabitants in the country, Iceland took the world by storm when they reached into quarterfinals of Euros a couple of years back, their first major tournament in international football. They upset England in the round of 16.

The tiny island nation have continued to make progress as they qualified for the World Cup 2018, becoming the smallest country, in terms of population, to do so. The qualification will get rid of the bad memories they had when they went close but couldn't make it to the 2014 World Cup.

The success story of Iceland traced back to its outstanding coaching system on the grassroots level. One in every 500 Icelanders is a UEFA-qualified coach. All schools in the country have, at least, five-a-side football team at their disposal, as the training starts from as young as 6 years-old preparing them to be good enough to fight at the highest level. Apart from that, Iceland has 20,000 footballers playing in the different levels of the country's football hierarchy.

Iceland have been drawn into group D in the World Cup, along with Argentina, Nigeria and Croatia. Icelanders will yearn for a major upset when they take on Messi and co. on 16th June in Moscow.