Iceland - Have they had their day in the sun?
The Iceland men's football team have achieved so much over the last few months. They went on to reach the finals of Euro 2016, beating England 2-1 in the round of 16 tie to make the quarterfinals. That in itself was a massive achievement, given it was the first ever tournament an Icelandic men's international football team reached. The achievements didn't stop there though, as they also qualified for the World Cup this year.
Let's put things into perspective here. Iceland has a population of 250,000, which is probably the size of a Galway or Waterford or even Salford in the UK.The achievement of the players and management is massive, and it is something that will go down in the history books of course.
However, as we all know with life, there are twists and turns, and ups and downs- and certainly, their first Nations League game was a down, as they suffered a devastating 6-0 defeat to Switzerland, and have failed to win in their last 10 games which is a sure sign things are on the slide.
Erik Hamren is the man in charge and he wouldn't have been impressed with his side's performance against the Swiss. His task doesn't get any easier, as they face a daunting game against Belgium in their next Nations League, and are currently 10/1 outsiders for that game on Tuesday evening.
Iceland have caused their fair share of upsets but their current run of form points to an easy enough Belgium win, especially as they have been hitting form, and put four past Scotland in a friendly recently.
It could be a difficult few months for Iceland, but I personally feel they will get back on track, and results will start to turn around for them. At the end of the day, you don't end up as a bad team overnight. They have quality, and I expect the Nordic men to come out fighting.