Saturday 16 June

 

 

Argentina vs Iceland - Moscow (Spartak) - 2pm - ITV

Croatia vs Nigeria - Kaliningrad - 8pm - ITV

 

 

 

Thursday 21 June

 

Argentina vs Croatia - Nizhny Novgorod - 7pm - BBC

 

 

Friday 22 June

 

Nigeria vs Iceland - Volgograd - 4pm - BBC

 

 

Tuesday 26 June

 

Nigeria vs Argentina - St Petersburg - 7pm - BBC

Iceland vs Croatia - Rostov-on-Don - 7pm - BBC

 

 

Odds to win Group D (Coral)

 

 

Argentina 8-15f

Croatia 13-5

Nigeria 9-1

Iceland 11-1

 

 

Who do you think will win Group D?

 

Hopefully Nigeria will win this group, realistically it's not gonna happen though. We should get a win against Iceland but the quad annual World Cup defeat to Argentina and another possible defeat to Croatia will probably be too much to overcome. I'm expecting Argentina to top this group.

What is it with Argentina and Nigeria nearly always being drawn against each other? :lol: Maybe this time Nigeria could actually win...

Simulated Results

 

 

ARG 2:2 ISL

CRO 2:1 NGA

ARG 1:1 CRO

NGA 2:1 ISL

ISL 0:1 CRO

NGA 0:3 ARG

 

 

Croatia [2-0-1] [7pts.] [4-2]

Argentina [1-0-2] [5pts.] [6-3]

Nigeria [1-2-0] [3pts.] [3-6]

Iceland [0-2-1] [1pts.] [3-5]

This is the "rematch" group because not only are Argentina and Nigeria facing off yet again, but Iceland and Croatia were in the same 2018 WC qualifying group and faced each other in the 2014 WC playoffs. They have a little rivalry going too.

It will be the third World Cup in a row that Argentina and Nigeria face each other. Also played each other in 1994 and 2002.

 

 

They were also in the same group in 2010 South Africa.

They must be getting fed up of playing each other in the World Cup. Argentina and Nigeria.

 

I'm hoping that Iceland can make cause a surprise in the group.

 

 

Iceland haven't even been performing well in friendlies lately though. Granted, they've been dealing with injuries but they had Gylfi back for the Norway friendly and lost at home. Now they have Ghana coming to Reykjavik.

 

No one wants Iceland to succeed more than I do, but I wouldn't bet on much success in this tournament.

This should be a win for Argentina. Now after Ronaldo's hat-trick this will be where Messi needs to perform.

This I can see being a narrow win for Croatia over Nigeria. Hope to be proved wrong and it will be a cracker.

I'd love to see Nigeria take this one, don't think it's out of the question either.

 

*watches Croatia sail to a 6-0 victory*

Such a good chance for Iceland early on! Hope they can cause an upset here.

COME ON GLORIOUS ICELANDIC VIKING WARRIORS

 

(I'll be happy if they avoid losing, those 4 minutes before the equaliser were heartbreaking xx)

A thrilling first half - if Iceland were as on target as Argentina were they'd be up 3-1 :P

I hope Iceland get the draw but my, what a dull match. I prefer it when both teams are actually attacking, rather than one team just defending most of the time and slowing the game down. But I suppose that's the only way really that Iceland can get a result.

PHEW. My heart was pounding there. Great result for Iceland, hope they can hold strong against the others.

Ayy they didn't lose. Áfram Ísland :wub:

 

I don't really understand football at all but it felt like Argentina were close to putting a 2nd goal in about 10 times near the end. Clench.

It was a bit of a mess for Messi, kept on missing the target, a couple of great saves from the Icelandic goalkeeper, especially that free kick from Messi. Hoping Croatia can score a couple of goals to win the group ahead of Argentina. I do find Argentina faltering a bit. I just don't find them winning this tournament at all. I be surprised if Croatia and Iceland go through to the second stage out of this group. Argentina need to pull something extraordinary from the next 2 matches, Croatia will definitely give them a game to play for.

That draw was the ideal result for Nigeria, now I trust us to bottle it against Croatia later :drama: