Iceland – Ukraine

The direct competitors must differ by at least two goals.

The situation in qualifying group D ahead of the start of the third round can be considered quite intriguing. If the first place is likely to go to the French national team and the last will be occupied by Azerbaijan, there will be both a direct and indirect battle for second place between the teams of Iceland and Ukraine. Before the start of qualification, Serhiy Rebrov's team was considered the second strongest participant in the group; however, the Ukrainians now find themselves in a difficult tournament position. They can only improve their standing through victories over the Icelandic national team, which 'dismissed' the coach of the Azerbaijani team during the last period of national team matches and showed itself in the match against France almost better than the group favourite. The value of the Ukrainian national team is almost four times higher than that of the Icelandic team (€309 million compared to €78 million), but the difference against the French was even more significant, and the result nearly turned disastrous for the vice-champions of the world. Bookmakers have determined the guests as the favourites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 2.32 for their victory. Iceland finished third in their League B group of the Nations League last year and lost to Kosovo in the playoff matches in March of this year. This means relegation to League C. The defeats to Kosovo occurred under the new head coach of the islanders. Therefore, nothing foreshadowed a sharp rise in the level of play of the Icelanders in the autumn. However, Arnor Gunnlaugsson managed to create a capable team, which started the qualifying round for the World Cup with a crushing 5:0 victory over Azerbaijan. The Icelanders truly surprised in the second round, when they performed almost on equal terms with France and only lost to the vice-champions of the world on experience - 1:2. Ukraine has been under the guidance of Serhiy Rebrov for more than two years. The 'yellow-blues' performed poorly at the EURO, where they did not advance from the group, and then almost achieved promotion to League A in the Nations League, but lost to Belgium with an aggregate score of 3:4. In the first match of the qualification for the 2026 World Cup, Rebrov's charges lost to France just as honourably as their upcoming opponent. However, in the second round, they suffered a real embarrassment. Ukraine could not manage to beat the local team of Azerbaijan, which has not known any positivity for a long time. The fairly strong attack of the Ukrainian side will rectify the tournament situation with productive actions in Iceland, but the hosts will not remain in debt either. There will be plenty of goals in the match.