Spain vs Iceland

Spain’s warm-up campaign for the upcoming World Cup finals continues with a friendly against out-of-form Iceland at the Estadio Municipal de Riazor.

Dani Olmo’s stoppage-time winner handed Spain a hard-earned 2-1 win over Albania last time out, extending their winning streak to three matches. Both goals Luis Enrique’s men netted against Albania arrived beyond the 70th minute, which means four of their last five international strikes have come inside the final 30 minutes of play. Even though none of Spain’s eight international outings in the post-Euro 2020 period have ended level (W6, L2), they have been notably tight. Indeed, six of those eight results (win/loss) yielded a single-goal margin, including the last five in a row. But ‘La Furia Roja’ have been a force to be reckoned with on home soil, as witnessed by their record of one defeat from their last 17 such fixtures (W14, D2).

On the other hand, since beating continental minnows Liechtenstein 4-0 at home in October 2021, Iceland have alternated between draws (3) and defeats (2) across their five subsequent internationals, including a 1-1 stalemate with Finland last time out. Moreover, Arnar Vidarsson’s men have won none of their last six matches on foreign soil (D4, L2) despite finding the net in five of them. Yet, Iceland’s four-game H2H record against Spain reads encouragingly (W1, D2, L1), though this will be their first encounter since 2007. They can still draw confidence from conceding under 1.5 goals in each of those four H2Hs. However, Iceland’s false entries have seen them ship the opening goal within 20 minutes of play across their last four outings, which could be a problem.