The president of the Icelandic Football Association Guðni Bergsson is confident that the national team can repeat the success of two years ago and qualify for the knockout rounds of the 2018 World Cup.

At the 2016 European Championship in France, Iceland advanced to the knockout phase without losing any of their Group F matches, famously beat England in the round of 16 before losing to France in the last eight.

''The World Cup is one of the most important events in the history of the whole of Iceland,'' Guðni Bergsson said to Russian News Agency TASS.

''We have quite a difficult group, but two years ago we already surprised the entire football community with a performance at the European Championships in France, and now we are ready to repeat the football tale again.

''I can not imagine how far our team can go in the World Cup, but I can say with certainty that those players who will go to Russia will play with the heart and with all their heart.''

The Nordic country will play their first-ever game at the World Cup against Argentina on June 16 before facing Nigeria (June 22) and Croatia (June 26).

Igho Kingsley

Photo Credit : ksi.is