FIFA World Cup 2018: Iceland will have to rely on luck and determination if they want to advance to the knockout stage

Croatia has already qualified for the round of 16 with their 2-0 victory over Nigeria and a 3-0 victory over a hapless Argentina. Even if they lose today against the underdogs, Iceland it won’t have any impact on their qualification for the knockout stages. However, its a completely different story for the favourite underdogs of this year’s World Cup.

With their 2-0 loss to Nigeria last week, Iceland extended its current winless streak to six games with two draws and four losses. That streak must come to an end against Croatia on tonight’s match for them to have any chance of avoiding elimination in the group stage.

Entering tonight, Iceland and Argentina both sit at the bottom of the group with one point each, with Iceland currently holding the goal differential tiebreaker over Argentina at -2 to -3. Nigeria has three points in the group and a goal differential of zero.

Iceland’s best chance at advancing is with a win over Croatia and an Argentina win over Nigeria, with Iceland retaining its goal differential advantage over Argentina. A far less likely path would be a win over Croatia by three goals or more and a draw in Argentina vs. Nigeria game, giving Iceland the goal differential advantage over Nigeria to advance.

Games in which one team has everything on the line and the other has nothing on the line are tough to predict. It will be interesting to see how the game unfolds tonight.

Iceland will face Croatia at Rostov Arena, Rostov-on-Don, Russia and the match is scheduled to begin at 11:30 pm IST. It will be telecast live on Sony Six and Six HD.

The team line-ups: 

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