On Friday evening, from 19:45 pm, Iceland receives a visit from France, in the Laugardalsvöllur arena, in Reykjavik. At the center will referee the Italian Rocchi, and the Nordics hope to make a better defensive game in front of the stars of Didier Deschamps.
In Group H, both teams fight for 1st place. Turkey is the leader (15 points, 14-2 goal), after great performances, but France is 2nd (also 15 points, 19-4 goal). Iceland is 13th (10-9), with 12 points and real hopes for the final tournament.
Also included in Group H are Albania, Moldova and Andorra, which do not issue claims for the first two positions. Therefore, the duel between France and Iceland has a decisive potential! With success moving, the “roosters” would make an important step towards qualification. Iceland is down after the Euro 2016 tournament, but played well with Albania (1-0), Turkey (2-1) and Moldova (3-0). In the final stage of the preliminaries, however, Iceland lost surprisingly to Albania, score 2-4!
France comes after successes with Bolivia (2-0, friendly match), Andorra (4-0), Albania (4-1) and again Andorra (3-0). There have been many direct matches between Iceland and France, over the years, and in 8 of the last 9 have scored at least three goals. France has won 4 of the last 5 games with the Nordics, 4-0, 5-2, 3-2 and 3-2. One of the duels ended in a draw, score 2-2. Despite the statistics, we will not bet on an open match, because of the important stake. The world champion has shown that he knows how to defend himself and will not handle this trip lightly.
PROBABLE TEAMS IN ICELAND – FRANCE
Iceland: Halldorsson – Hermansson, Arnasson, SIgurdsson, Skulason – Gudmundsson, Sigurjohnsson, Bjarnason, Traustason – Sigurdsson – Sightorsson
France: Areola – Pavard, Varane, Lenglet, Digne – Kante, Tolisso – Ikone, Griezmann, Coman – Yedder
PREDICTION: France to win @ 1,46
