TEAM NEWS
Iceland will become the smallest nation to compete in a World Cup finals when they meet Argentina in Moscow.
Iceland midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson returned from a knee injury in a friendly against Ghana last week.
Argentina boss Jorge Sampaoli took the surprising decision to name his line-up a day before the match, handing starts to Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero.
Croatia and Nigeria are the other two teams in Group D and meet on Saturday evening in Kaliningrad.
Argentina starting XI: Willy Caballero, Eduardo Salvio, Nicolas Otamendi, Marcos Rojo, Nicolas Tagliafico, Lucas Biglia, Javier Mascherano, Maximiliano Meza, Lionel Messi, Angel di Maria, Sergio Aguero.
OVERVIEW
Despite his success with Barcelona, Messi still has not won a major honour with Argentina. The forward turns 31 on 24 June so this could be his last chance to add the game’s biggest prize to his glittering list of achievements.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner has even hinted he could retire from international football after the tournament, saying last week that “it will depend on how far we go”.
After scoring seven of Argentina’s 19 goals in qualifying, including a hat-trick to clinch their place in Russia, the Barca forward remains pivotal to the Albiceleste’s hopes of winning the World Cup for the first time since 1986.
Without him they were beaten 6-1 in a friendly against Spain in March and they have only played once since, beating Haiti 4-0, with Messi scoring another treble.
Friendlies against Nicaragua and Israel had to be cancelled due to safety concerns so Iceland will aim to take advantage of any rustiness in their first game at a World Cup finals.
Their passage to Russia followed a famous Euro 2016 campaign, where they humiliated England on the way to the quarter-finals.
Despite their success in France, though, manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has called this “the biggest game in the history of Icelandic football”.
He added:”Regarding Messi, I don’t have a magic formula. Everybody has tried everything against him and he always manages to score.
“He is one of the best players in the world. We will play against him like everything we do, we’ll do it together. We’ll help each other and try to do it as a team.”
LAWRO’S PREDICTION
Iceland were arguably the team of the tournament at Euro 2016. Now they are up against Lionel Messi and it will be fascinating to see how they get on.
Argentina have some issues defensively but, at the other end of the pitch, they have got plenty of players who can potentially win them the game, no matter how well Iceland defend.
Prediction: 2-0
Source: BBC News
