Iceland mentor positive about their odds of beating commonplace adversary Croatia

Iceland mentor positive about their odds of beating commonplace adversary Croatia 

Iceland need to beat a Croatia side their mentor Heimir Hallgrimsson depicted as resembling the other portion of a wedded couple to make the last-16.

Having drawn 1-1 with Argentina in their opener, Iceland got a reality check from their World Cup children's story as Ahmed Musa scored twice for Nigeria and Gylfi Sigurdsson missed a punishment in the African group's 2-0 win.

The Iceland mentor said his side got their strategies right, preventing Nigeria from dealing with a shot on focus in the main half, just to yield two objectives after the interim.

"What changed the amusement was the objective they scored in the second half. We needed to go additionally forward and go out on a limb, and they are great, brisk going ahead, and they scored two objectives like that," Hallgrimsson told journalists.

Nigeria, Iceland and Argentina can qualify from Group D, however the last two sides need to win to have any shot of making the knockout stage, with Iceland confronting Croatia in their last gathering diversion.

"We've played Croatia four times in four years, we've frequently said we're similar to a hitched couple - we're endeavoring to get separated, yet we generally get together once more," the Iceland mentor told a news meeting.

Ahmed Musa exceeded expectations as Nigeria beat Iceland in Volgograd. PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP/Getty Images

The Croatians finished Iceland's 2014 World Cup dream by beating them in a two-legged playoff, and the connection between the sides on the field has regularly been rough.

"We know the situation when we play Croatia - it will be extremely intense diversions," Hallgrimsson said.

"Typically it's steel to steel, not a great deal of shots, dependably a considerable measure of yellow cards. In three diversions out of four, we've had a red card," he included.

The groups met in the qualifying effort for Russia, with each triumphant at home as Iceland bested the gathering, however Croatia's 3-0 pounding of Argentina checked them out as one of the groups to watch in Russia.

The Croatians, who top the gathering on six focuses with Nigeria second on three and Iceland and Argentina on one each, may accept the open door to lay players on Tuesday, however Hallgrimsson is underestimating nothing.

"We were in front of them in our gathering and we've officially beaten them once in Iceland, so we at any rate have that certainty with us when we play them," he said.