Iceland at the FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.

The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.

Iceland made its debut at the FIFA World Cup in 2018 after having failed 12 consecutive qualification campaigns from 1974 to 2014. The nation first attempted to qualify for the tournament back in 1958.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup was Iceland's second major international tournament, having also qualified for UEFA Euro 2016.

Iceland is the smallest nation to reach the World Cup Group Stage, breaking the record set by Trinidad and Tobago.^[1]^[2]

Record at the FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA
1930	Did not enter
1934
1938
1950
1954	Entry not accepted by FIFA
1958	Did not qualify
1962	Did not enter
1966
1970
1974	Did not qualify
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018	Group stage	28th	3	0	1	2	2	5
2022	Did not qualify
2026	To be determined
2030
2034
Total	Group stage	1/25	3	0	1	2	2	5

*Draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.

Russia 2018

Following a 2–0 home win over Kosovo in the final round of the qualifiers, Iceland secured their spot in Russia 2018, finishing top of Group I by two points over Croatia, who had defeated Iceland in the World Cup play-offs four years earlier.^[3] Despite finishing bottom of the group, Iceland drew against Argentina 1–1 in the opening match of the group.

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Croatia	3	3	0	0	7	1	+6	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Argentina	3	1	1	1	3	5	−2	4	Advance to knockout stage
3	Nigeria	3	1	0	2	3	4	−1	3
4	Iceland	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3	1

Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

16 June 2018

16:00 MSK (UTC+3)

Argentina	1–1	Iceland
Agüero 19'	Report	Finnbogason 23'

Otkritie Arena, Moscow

Attendance: 44,190^[4]

Referee: Szymon Marciniak (Poland)

22 June 2018

18:00 MSK (UTC+3)

Nigeria	2–0	Iceland
Musa 49', 75'	Report

Volgograd Arena, Volgograd

Attendance: 40,904^[5]

Referee: Matthew Conger (New Zealand)

26 June 2018

21:00 MSK (UTC+3)

Iceland	1–2	Croatia
Sigurðsson 76' (pen.)	Report	Badelj 53' Perišić 90'

Rostov Arena, Rostov-on-Don

Attendance: 43,472^[6]

Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (Spain)

Players with most appearances

Nine players were fielded in all three of Iceland's FIFA World Cup matches in 2018.

Rank	Player	Matches
1	Birkir Bjarnason	3
	Alfreð Finnbogason	3
	Aron Gunnarsson	3
	Hannes Halldórsson	3
	Hörður Magnússon	3
	Birkir Sævarsson	3
	Björn Sigurðarson	3
	Gylfi Sigurðsson	3
	Ragnar Sigurðsson	3

Goalscorers

In the match against Argentina on 16 June 2018, Alfreð Finnbogason scored the first goal for Iceland in FIFA World Cup history.

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Alfreð Finnbogason	1
1	Gylfi Sigurðsson	1

References

^ Nunns, Hector (14 November 2013). "BBC Sport – World Cup play-offs: How Iceland can set World Cup record". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
^ "Iceland become smallest nation ever to qualify for World Cup finals". Guardian. 9 October 2017. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
^ "Iceland 2 Kosovo 0". BBC Sport. 9 October 2017. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
^ "Match report – Group D – Argentina v Iceland" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 16 June 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
^ "Match report – Group D – Nigeria v Iceland" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 22 June 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
^ "Match report – Group D – Iceland v Croatia" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 26 June 2018. Retrieved 26 June 2018.