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Lionel Messi missed a penalty as Iceland grabbed a deserved 1-1 draw with two-time World Cup winners Argentina.<\/p>\nLionel Messi missed a penalty as Iceland grabbed a deserved 1-1 draw with two-time World Cup winners Argentina.<\/p>\n
Sergio Aguero\u2019s opener was cancelled out by Alfred Finnbogason\u2019s predatory finish before half-time as the smallest nation ever to qualify for the tournament made a stirring debut on football\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n
And Hannes Halldorsson joined Finnbogason in the country\u2019s footballing folklore by thwarting Messi from the penalty spot in the second half to preserve a memorable point.<\/p>\n
Iceland\u2019s fans provided a raucous pre-match build-up in Moscow, singing \u201cEg er kommin heim\u201d (\u201cI have arrived\u201d) and finishing with their trademark Viking clap, and Everton\u2019s Gylfi Sigurdsson took their first shot within 10 seconds.<\/p>\n
Argentina, not short of support themselves, then kept the ball for the next five minutes and the game had immediately found its rhythm and shape.<\/p>\n
As promised by coach Jorge Sampaoli, Lionel Messi went where he pleased, darting and probing, while Iceland did what their manager Heimir Hallgrimsson pledged, no man-marking assignment on the mini maestro, just gang-tackling.<\/p>\n
Despite the one-sided possession statistics the sides traded near misses, with Aston Villa\u2019s Birkir Bjarnason having the best of them when he dragged a shot just wide.<\/p>\n
It came after some horribly slack play from Argentina and was the type of squandered chance teams so often live to regret.<\/p>\n
So it seemed when Aguero, with his back to goal on the penalty spot, stopped a hopeful Marcos Rojo daisy-cutter with one touch and swiveled to smash a left-footed drive into the top corner.<\/p>\n
It was the type of finish Manchester City fans have seen many, many times and reminded everyone inside the Spartak Stadium how silly it is to regard Argentina as a one-man team.<\/p>\n
But all week Iceland have been telling people their Euro 2016 win over England was not a miracle, their group-topping qualification was not a shock and their place here is entirely in keeping with their FIFA ranking.<\/p>\n
They backed up those claims when Sigurdsson\u2019s cross created panic, Hordur Magnusson picked up the loose ball on the right and fired it hard and low towards Caballero\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n
The Chelsea goalkeeper dived bravely at the feet of several onrushing players but could only palm it to Iceland\u2019s lone striker Finnbogason, who calmly volleyed home. Barely a quarter of the way through, the game was already shaping up as a classic.<\/p>\n
The rest of the half continued in this vein. Messi was menacing, Iceland unbending. They could even have taken a half-time lead when Caballero saved well from Gylfi Sigurdsson\u2019s low shot, only for the Everton man to volley wide from the edge of the box a minute later.<\/p>\n
As so often after a breathless first 45, the second half started slowly. But on 62 minutes Messi found himself in space on the left and spotted Maximiliano Meza charging into the area.<\/p>\n
Magnusson, who only had eyes for the ball, was ruled to have bundled Meza to the floor. Surely this was Messi\u2019s moment.<\/p>\n
Halldorsson, a part-time film director, had his own script in mind and the Randers FC keeper flung himself to his right and made his mark on World Cup history.<\/p>\n
Messi was not finished, though. A wave of his left foot sent the ball whistling just wide with 10 minutes left and then in stoppage time he went right and flashed a shot past the other post.<\/p>\n
By this stage, Iceland were massed in their defensive third, with Udinese midfielder Emil Hallfredsson magnificent in the destroyer role and the other Sigurdsson, Ragnar, a rock at the back.<\/p>\n
When the final whistle blew that Icelandic volcano in the corner of the stadium erupted: they have arrived.<\/p>\n