Who will win this group?

Perhaps with the other three, but Iceland is really the model of consistency. They usually win by one or two goals, and only have two competitive losses by more than goal in the last four years.

 

And they are. Look at his hype. He was deemed the 11th best u21 player in the world by CIES with a valuation of 65 Mon EUR. Ahead of players like Asensio, Donnarunma. He was also ranked above Kante in some recent rankings of the best players of the EPL. And yes - many would argue he's the best DM in the EPL.

Besides my argument was that he is the best DM in both teams not in the world.

 

Pretty much in the playoff games against Greece, and against Ukraine as well. Mandzukic played mostly on the wing. And you know he plays there all the time for Juve, correct?

 

Yup, Iceland have been very consistent. That's partly why I don't think they will finish 4th in this group.
Either 2nd or 3rd.

 

Consistent ? Somewhat I guess, but no more than any of the other teams in the group.

They have competitive losses against Croatia and FINLAND. Also in the last set of friendlies they lost against Czech Rep and drew against Qatar. Now granted those squads were experimental and half strength at best, but I still find that a worrying sign.

Argentina has consistently made the finals of the last 3 tournaments they played in. That's more consistency to me than Iceland.

Nigeria has been fairly consistent since our new coach took over, the only blemish a loss to S Africa but our WCQ was nearly flawless.

This group will be a step up for Iceland. They will not be playing Kosovo, Turkey, Finland.

Iceland will have never in their history competed in such a strong group, not only that I don't know if Iceland have ever played a team like Argentina or Nigeria. The closest team in terms of style and talent to Nigeria that Iceland has ever played is France, and they were drubbed 5-2.

I'll be watching their upcoming friendlies, as I will the other teams in this group, but I don't really think Iceland is necessarily any more consistent than any of the other teams in this group.

 

Or Maybe even 1st. Now that is definitely just a dream, but if the other 3 teams take points from each other, and Iceland can win 2 and draw 1, that is an easy first place for them.

Say if something like this happens:

Argentina 1-0 Iceland
Croatia 2-2 Nigeria
Argentina 1-2 Croatia
Nigeria 1-2 Iceland
Nigeria 1-1 Argentina
Iceland 1-0 Croatia

This is a very possible outcome or similar possible out come which would make the group look like this:

1. Iceland 6pts
2. Croatia 4pts
3. Argentina 4pts
4. Nigeria 2pts

 

Yes i Know he plays that in Juve. But he was didnt played the first match against Greece. And i cant remember he did it the second match either. And not against Ukraine. Whatever

 

Mandzukic was hurt the first game against Greece. Mandzukic did play the second game.

 

Mikel is no where near the level of Modric. Ndidi is a very good player but different player then Rakitic. Rakitic has never played as well for Croatia as he has for Barcelona though. With Real Madrid being eliminated form la liga and possible champions league Modric will be a lot fresher for Russia then he was for Brazil. With Croatia one never knows how they will play as mentally they are fragile in big tournaments. I expect them to play well against Argentina but who knows about the other 2 games. There is a lot of pressure on the team as anything less the getting out of the group will be a big disappointment. Modric said this is there last chance to make a run like the 1998 team so it's put up or shut up now. I also would not be surprised to see an incident with the fans like in euro 2016. Many of the fans want to see Croatia thrown out of the World Cup just like in euros because of all the corruption with the soccer federation.

 

yea i know he played the second game. I mean he didnt played as a winger

 

Yes he did against Ukraine. Kramaric was the main striker.

 

Not sure what you mean by "I don't know if Iceland has ever played a team like Nigeria". What about England? We all hate the FIFA rankings, but even in the ELO rankings England is 7th and Nigeria 47th. England is certainly on a par with Nigeria, if not higher.

And if you're going to name the teams in Iceland's qualifying group, don't just name the weaker teams, name them all. From seeds 1 to 6, Group I, with Croatia, Finland, Iceland, Kosovo, Turkey and Ukraine was probably the toughest UEFA qualifying group (the only group that had four teams qualify for Euro 2016), and Iceland beat out all the others for first place and the automatic World Cup berth.

Anyway, I never said that Argentina, Croatia and Nigeria are inconsistent. That was Azzuri Fan's comment. I just said that the description does not apply to Iceland, who have been very consistent (never too far up or down) for at least four years now.

 

Well it is hard to say. Yes I believe Iceland is more consistent but still has a few bad games like the loss to Finland, and the draw with Ukraine. Well I guess you can pretty much say that with any team that is not a tier 1 team though.

 

A couple of matches not going according to script is to be expected over a 2-3 year period from any side. Overall, Iceland have done well and been consistent. They actually remind, tactically and in terms of their consistency, of another side I know. But my gut instincts tell me that a country with a population as low as Iceland, which has already been the Cinderella side in a major tournament (Euro 2016) and, despite the odds, even done well in qualifying to Russia on top of a tough group, is probably going to find the clock hit the midnight stroke at some point. And I think Russia could be that point. But that is my gut feeling. Otherwise, showing what they did in Euro 2016 and in qualifying, there is no particular reason to underestimate their chances.

 

The outcome of this group is clearly the hardest to predict. In my opinion this is the most competitive group in this World Cup. Maybe even one of the most competitve in the whole World Cup history. I can imagine any two teams going through in any order. I am sure no team in this group exits pointless, even I can see a scenario where all four teams get at least one win which is quite rare. Since World Cup 1998 there were four groups where this happened. In 1994 there was a group with Mexico, Republic of Irealand, Italy and Norway. After matchday 2 all teams had three points. The group went on to be decided solely on goal difference as all teams finished on four points. That was weird. I don't think this will repeat here, but I think all teams will go with three points into the last matchday.

Argentina - Iceland 2:0
Croatia - Nigeria 0:1
Argentina - Croatia 1:2
Iceland - Nigeria 2:1

 

As a supporter of Croatia I'm just worried for the Nigeria game. I have still to watch a few full games of them (which I will do in next weeks) but they seem to be very dangerous this time around.

For Argentina. They are a big name and I'm the least worried for this game as Croatia tends to lift its game against teams of these calibre.

For Iceland. I'm optimistic. Croatia played Iceland four times in the last five years. So both sides are quite familiar with each other. But Croatia has way more quality individuals and seems to be no good match-up for Iceland. Iceland was capable to hold off Croatia in their home games, but away they were dominated by Croatia. If Croatia can play its game like in the group stage of EURO 2016 or as they did at home against Iceland in the qualfying they will beat them comfortly.

 

You are not rebutting our point that Iceland is consistent. Of course they would lose to France, France is better than them at they were at home. They also lose to Croatia fairly consistently. .

But they consistently get good results against the teams they should beat while losing to the teams that should beat them. Look at their results in Euro 2016 qualifying and Euro 2016 Finals: they almost got draws in all 3 group games. That's pretty darn consistent!

I agree that Argentina is also quite consistent. But to say Croatia are consistent is a big stretch.

 

Argentina seems to be consistently bad without Messi. And consistently scrapes through with him in the team.

 

Well, in Copa America 2015 & 2016 they won many blowouts. "Scraping by" is not how I would describe a team that had a +16 goal difference in the 5 wins that got them to the final.

But the blowouts all came against much weaker teams. Against good teams they continually struggle to even score 1 goal. Very consistent in that sense.

 

Well if you say Iceland is "consistent" against teams they "should beat"

There are no teams they "should" beat in this group.

They "should" have beaten Finland by the way, and didn't.

 

I think Iceland will play the role of spoiler in this group, as they can result with any of the other teams to mess up their chances. But I don't feel Iceland can qualify from this group, it's too tough for them.

 

I think what makes Iceland scary is that they are an organized team with a good manager and for the most part have played together under the same system the longest out of the three teams.

They also are playing with house money that is very dangerous. There's not the expectations of the other teams to advance by the fans or the media. They are just happy to be there and will be treating it like a party. when you don't have pressure sometimes it is a very good thing.

 

Last Night I dreamed this:

Iceland 1-0 Croatia
Argentina 1-2 Iceland

Woke up before I had a chance to look at any other results, but if that gives you any clue.

 

Thanks, but nobody cares about your dreams dude.