{"id":1120,"date":"2017-12-21T20:33:25","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T19:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/?p=1120"},"modified":"2025-07-01T11:52:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T10:52:26","slug":"fifas-timely-warning-to-super-eagles-five-reasons-iceland-can-shock-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/21\/fifas-timely-warning-to-super-eagles-five-reasons-iceland-can-shock-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA\u2019S timely warning to Super Eagles: Five Reasons Iceland can shock the world"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Iceland
Iceland Football Team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

World football governing body and owners of the World Cup competition has warned the global audience to watch out for the mystery team called Iceland when the World Cup kicks off in June next year.<\/p>\n

Iceland, one of the two debutants and the smallest county ever to qualify for the World Cup, will feature in Group D where the Super Eagles will be attempting to cross to the next round.<\/p>\n

Iceland will be Nigeria\u2019s second opponents after that of Croatia before facing Argentina.<\/p>\n

FIFA in its website gave five reasons why Iceland can shock the world. It remarked that there is an undeniable novelty factor to the small country\u2019s participation at Russia 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven their manager, Heimir Hallgrimsson, acknowledged as much after their spot at the FIFA World Cup \u2013 and place in history as the smallest nation ever to qualify \u2013 was secured. \u201cThis is really odd,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, Pele, Maradona\u2026 Aron Einar Gunnarsson.\u201d<\/p>\n

FIFA warned that no one should be fooled by this light-hearted suggestion that Iceland, and their bearded captain, might seem out of place among the game\u2019s greats on the global stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor all the focus on their record-breaking population, they were also the smallest country ever to qualify for the UEFA European Championship \u2013 and everyone knows how that tale unfolded.<\/p>\n

\u2018Indeed, while Iceland\u2019s World Cup hopes haven\u2019t been aided by a tough draw that has pitted them against Argentina, Croatia and Nigeria, there is plenty of cause for optimism. And if Lionel Messi, Luka Modric and Co need any reminding,\u00a0FIFA.com\u00a0has five reasons why the Nordic newcomers are a team worth fearing\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to FIFA the Icelanders are serial giant-killers. \u201c<\/strong>\u2018The bigger they are, the harder they fall\u2019 seems to be the motto of a team that, over the past couple of years, has beaten the likes of Croatia, the Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine, Greece and, most famously of all, England.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs midfielder Olafur Skulason said: \u201cI could see the newspapers in other countries talking about how unlucky we are to get that kind of group \u2013 but that is exactly what we want. We want those big games. We want to play against Argentina. What an amazing team to play against in the first game ever for Iceland in the World Cup!\u201d<\/p>\n

FIFA also remarked that Iceland\u00a0c<\/strong>an better their EURO heroics. It will be recalled that Iceland stunned the football world by qualifying from their group at UEFA EURO 2016, then knocking out England in the last 16.<\/p>\n

But despite their outstanding results, which also included a win over Austria and a draw with eventual champions Portugal, the players insisted that performance levels were below par. \u201cI strongly believe we\u2019re better than we showed in most of those games,\u201d veteran defender Kari Arnason told\u00a0FIFA.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were nerves at the EURO but we\u2019re normally better in keeping the ball, working openings.\u201d This was borne out in qualifying, when Iceland impressed en route to topping a group featuring Croatia, Turkey and Ukraine. It also bodes well for Russia 2018. As Arnason said: \u201cIt\u2019s nice to say that we did so well [at the EURO] and still have a lot of room to improve.\u201d
\nFIFA also points out that Iceland have a star No. 10 of their own.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Lionel Messi might be Group D\u2019s headline act, but Iceland also have an influential and highly effective No10 in the shape of Gylfi Sigurdsson.<\/p>\n

The midfielder is undoubtedly the ace in the debutants\u2019 pack, with vision, shooting ability and set-piece expertise among his most notable attributes. As Sigurdsson\u2019s former manager, Lars Lagerback, pointed out, he also epitomises Iceland\u2019s team-centred approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether with Henrik Larsson, I would say that Gylfi is the best team player I\u2019ve worked with,\u201d Lagerback said of the man Everton paid \u00a345 million for. \u201cHe always plays for the team and must be one of the best two-way midfield players out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

FIFA also hailed the Icelandic team spirit which it described as second-to-none.
\nThough their midfield playmaker stands out, Iceland\u2019s strength lies not in star players, but in unity. Sigurdsson himself acknowledged this when asked about the secret behind their success.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a lot to do with the team spirit that we have,\u201d he said. \u201cHow we are as a group is unique.\u201d The country\u2019s modest population, and the consequently small pool of players to pick from, ensures that Hallgrimsson\u2019s squad rarely changes, and is largely comprised of close friends who have come through the youth ranks together.\u00a0According to FIFA, the Icelandic players have a special bond with their supporters. In most countries, the idea of the national coach visiting fans in the pub ahead of matches would be unthinkable.<\/p>\n

But according to FIFA, this is not so with Iceland, where Hallgrimsson has maintained these remarkable routine \u2013 briefing supporters on tactics, sharing motivational videos \u2013 throughout the last two qualifying campaigns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a closeness there that makes us a little special,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe have built a unique relationship with our fans and my visits to the bar have become a sweet Icelandic tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another tradition, which became famous at the EURO \u2013 when almost ten per cent of Iceland\u2019s population headed to France to cheer the team on -, is the \u2018Thunderclap\u2019.<\/p>\n

The war cry-like chant drew inspiration from the film \u2018300\u2019 and made for an intimidating sight and sound. As one Portuguese journalist wrote at the EURO: \u201cDon\u2019t cross Iceland \u2013 their Viking chant is terrifying!\u201d<\/p>\n

Culled from\u00a0www.sportsvillagesquare.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World football governing body and owners of the World Cup competition has warned the global audience to watch out for the mystery team called Iceland when the World Cup kicks off in June next year. Iceland, one of the two debutants and the smallest county ever to qualify for the World Cup, will feature in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[235,236,234,150],"class_list":["post-1120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-iceland","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1120"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1128,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions\/1128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}