This is how the group stands now. There are tears in St. Petersberg, where Argentina have gone through.
FULL-TIME: ICELAND 1-2 CROATIA That was it! Traustason, in the dying minutes, has a shot from an acute angle from close range. The referee blows the whistle and that’s it, Iceland are out and Argentina are in. What a turnaround it has been. Croatia bossed the game and deservedly got three points on the board. Perisic had a tremendous game and earned the winning goal.
What a finish! And with Argentina in the lead, this could well be game over for Iceland. Perisic won the ball, surged forward and thumped the ball into the with a side-foot finish.
89’ GOAL!! CROATIA 2-1 ICELAND (Perisic)
87’ More shots from Croatia, who are also holding the ball well. MEANWHILE ROJO HAS PUT ARGENTINA IN THE LEAD.
84’ Stunning free-kick by Rakitic and the ball and the ball goes narrowly over the bar. Iceland’s chances are fading away.
83’ Croatia have a free-kick at the edge of the area. Rakitic wins it after Sevarsson makes a professional foul.
82’ Iceland have the ball in a dangerous area on Gudmundsson and Jedvaj makes a cynical challenge. The Croat gets YELLOW CARD.
79’ Lot of pressure from Croatia, who seemed have got their shape back here. Meanwhile, Kovacic goes off and in comes Rakitic.
What a finish! Kalinic goes the wrong way and this time, the shot was on target and it hit the roof of the net. Game on! It was straight down the middle from Sigurdsson
GOAL!!! ICELAND 1-1 CROATIA (G Sigurdsson)
73’ ICELAND HAVE A PENALTY. Hand ball given against Dejan Lovren
72’ Poor miss from Bjarnason! Finnbogason, who has easily been Iceland ‘s best player tonight, wins the ball and surges forward and floats a ball into the box. Bjarnason can’t get his shot on target.
68’ There is a stoppage in play as Lovren comes into replace Pjaca. Interesting statistic: Croatia have taken eight shots on target and five of them have resulted in goals. Iceland have Sigurdarson replacing Ragnar Sigurddson.
64’ Ohhh! Sigurdsson comes close with a thumping shot from inside the area but it only hits the side netting. Fine effort that, sending the Iceland defence the other way. Meanwhile, Bradaric replaces Luca Modric.
62’ Finnbogason get a YELLOW CARD for a sliding challenge on keeper Kalinic. The keeper is floored by the effort.
60’ Croatia have a free-kick but a foul is called for infringement inside the box.
58’ Iceland’s Hallfreddson goes into the book for cynical challenge on Pjaca. Croatia are dominating the ball right now and Iceland are giving away too many fouls.
56’ Ohhh! What a comeback from Iceland. They win a corner and Ingason’s header hits the bar. It was a fine effort from the defender who rose above the opposition defence with authority.
What a finish from Badelj! It was Kramaric who set it up with a superb run down the byline to set things up. His final ball took a deflection and bounced into vacant area in the box. Badlej made a late run and smashed it into the net. Trouble for Iceland.
52’ GOAL!! CROATIA 1-0 ICELAND (Badlej)
50’ Badlej hits the bar! What a shot from him from the middle of the park but Halldorsson gets a hand on it and the ball goes out for a corner, hitting the bar of course.
48’ Iceland briefly threaten but Croatia are back on the ball. They surge forward and the attack comes to nothing as Kovacic is stopped by Iceland double-teaming on him.
46’ Iceland have a free-kick from 35 yards out.
We are back for the second half
Reminder: If Iceland win, they beat Argentina to the last-16 spot despite the latter winning their encounter against Nigeria.
Half-Time: Peeeep, peeeep. It’s goalless. Croatia have seen a lot of the ball but have been wasteful. Even Modric has looked off-colour. Iceland got into the game, and created a couple of decent attempts on goal in the last 10 minutes. Interesting second-half in store.
45+2’ What a save from Kalinic! That was going to the top corner but the Croatian goalkeeper dived full length to push the ball behind. Gunnarsson took the shot.
44’ OOOH! Bjarnason takes a shot from the edge of the box and and Kalinic saved it. But a foul was blown for infringement in the penalty area.
43’ They do have a sniff. Hallfredsson’s takes a shot from long-range and it might have landed in row-z
42’ After a good spell from Iceland, Croatia get the ball and do little with it. Hang on...Iceland could have one final attack before the end of the first half.
38’ OOH! We have the closest attempt on goal so far. Tremendous work by Finnbogason, who set it up with a one-two at the edge of the area. His shot, which was threatening, went just wide of the post. That was much better from Iceland and was only a few inches away from hitting the target.
36’ More toothless attempts on goal from Croatia. Jedvaj and Modric combine to set up Perisic, whose attempt goes wide of goal. No power and very little accuracy.
33’ Oh dear! Croatia are under pressure over the last few minutes with the Iceland attackers trying to raid their penalty area. They haven’t tested Kalinic but have had an encouraging spell on the ball. The closest they came to scoring was a long-ranger from Bjarnason’s long-ranger.
32’ Strangely, since Argentina scored in St. Petersburg, Iceland have upped the ante and are now seeing more of the ball.
30’ Nah...the free-kick, from 30 yards out, was hardly going to trouble Kalinic, who takes a safe catch to see out the danger.
28’ Iceland now have a free-kick. Time for Sigurdsson to atone for his penalty miss during the Nigeria game?
26’ Hang on, Iceland have a corner.....and it goes harmlessly out of play. It was Magnusson who got to the end of Gudmundsson’s corner.
24’ More of the same, Iceland once again attack down the right flank but this time Corluka, who recently completed 100 caps, sees out the danger.
22’ There was a Iceland attack that was developing but Jedvaj was alert to see out the danger with a sliding challenge.
21’ Croatia have 71 percent of ball possession. Iceland have hardly had a sniff of the ball. To be fair, The Croats haven’t created anything of note, either.
19’ Bjarnason continues to get treatment on the sidelines. Meanwhile, Croatia continue to dominate possession. They aren’t doing much with it, though.
18’ Perisic continues to be a threat down the left flank and he wins a corner for his side.
15’ Iceland fans are not letting that dampen their spirits, though. The Viking clap is in full voice. Meanwhile MESSI HAS PUT ARGENTINA IN THE LEAD
12’ Bjornasson has gone off the field. He has his nose cut open. Now, Pjaka is booked by the referee. Quite a late one that
10’ How was that not a bookable offence? Bjarnason is elbowed in the face by Pjaka and the Icelandic midfielder is down. He needs some treatment.
8’ There is an appeal for a foul at the edge of the penalty area from Croatia. It seemed as though Gunnarsson had brought down Pjaca but the referee waves play on. The Croat is not impressed.
7’ Jedvaj threatens down the right flank, where he gets acres of space. The attack, though, like the previous ones, fizzles out to nothing – another harmless ball straight to the keeper.
6’ Iceland are now on the attack. They come down the right but nothing comes out of the attack as Finnbogasson’s shot goes nowhere.
4’ Nothing doing. The ball goes all the way back to goalkeeper Kalinic. If early signs are anything to go by, Iceland need to take the game to their opponents.
3’ Croatia have the ball and are patient in possession. It was Perisic on the left flank who won it back for them. There could be danger...hang on.
11:30 IST: The game is underway. It is Iceland who start on the frontfoot. The Croats win it back in their half but it is the debutants who have a throw in.
11:23 IST: The teams are out
11:21 IST: Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic made nine changes for this game. Iceland’s Heimir Hallgrimsson hands defender Sverrir Ingason – substitute against Nigeria – a starting place while Emil Hallfredsson returns in midfield.
11:17: The Croats have now played 188 minutes without conceding a goal. The Iceland side clearly have their task cut out.
11:15 IST: The two teams have faced six times in the past. Croatia have won four times while Iceland have won once. They have also played out a draw.
Argentina and Sweden faced off in 2002 for their final group encounter. The Albiceleste were in a similar situation, having taken just one point from two games. They lost the game and subsequently crashed out. Just saying.
10:35 IST: Why tinker with a winning formula, eh? Croatia starting with a 4-2-3-1 and Modric will continue to play in an advanced role. Kramaric will be the lone striker.
10:30 IST: This is the final shot Messi and Co have at redeeming themselves. Will Argentina sneak into the last-16 or crash out for the first time since 2002? One can catch live action HERE.
The lineups are out for both matches. Croatia have rested Mandzukic and Rakitic for this contest.
Hello and welcome to the live updates of the Group D match between Croatia and Iceland. The Croats are already through following their thumping win against Argentina at Nizhny. With six points from two games, they can afford to rest some of their stars before they take on either France or Denmark in the round of 16.
There is a belief in Croatia that they can match their historic run to the World Cup semi-finals 20 years ago thanks to Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic forming the best midfield on show in Russia, according to defender Vedran Corluka.
Rivals at club level with Real Madrid and Barcelona, Modric and Rakitic have teamed up at international level for over a decade.
But after both netted in a 3-0 thrashing of Argentina that took Croatia into the last 16, Corluka believes they are in better form than ever at a major tournament. “They are playing in the biggest clubs and this is their best performances for Croatia during a tournament,” Corluka, who earned his 100th cap against Argentina, said on Saturday.
Iceland were condemned to a stunning loss by Nigeria in the previous game. This means that like Argentina, they need a win too progress to the knockout stages.