In this round of European Cup qualifiers, Iceland almost drew with Portugal, but unfortunately they still fell short, and were finally eliminated by Cristiano Ronaldo 0-1. Luxembourg, by contrast, was much luckier to keep their hopes of winning 2-0 away at Bosnia and Herzegovina.
At the European Championship seven years ago, Iceland once created a myth that this small country with a population of only about 370,000 miraculously reached the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, with the aging of the core players in the team, the myth of the Icelandic team has been shattered, which is also a normal rule, after all, their population is too small, it is difficult to produce so many football talents at once as before.
Iceland were exhausted against Portugal and had planned to hold on to their opponents to win by one point. In fact, the Icelandic team's plan almost succeeded. It's a pity that an accident made their efforts go down the drain.
In the 81st minute, Iceland's No.15 player went straight down to tackle the ball in the defense, and finally received a second yellow card, unfortunately he was sent off. After Iceland played one less man, cracks began to appear in the defensive line and were eventually defeated by Cristiano Ronaldo.
At that time, the Portuguese captain passed into the box, teammates headed the ball and sent the ball to Ronaldo, how could the superstar miss such an opportunity, and finally Ronaldo scored the only goal of the game in one fell swoop, scoring in his 200th national team game, and Ronaldo was crowned overnight.
With the defeat, Iceland have only three points from four games so far, and it is too difficult for them to qualify. According to the rules, the top two teams in the group will directly qualify for the main stage of the European Championship, while the third place will have to compare the results with the other groups before deciding whether to qualify for the play-offs.
Iceland is fourth in the group, 4 points behind third Luxembourg, although the gap between the two teams is not large, but the state of the two sides is very different, Iceland wants to fight back to get third (basically no play for two), the chances are not very big, because Luxembourg is not what it used to be.
In the away game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg managed to take away three points with a convincing 2-0. Luxembourg has lost only one game so far in qualifying, against Portugal, and has seven points from three games, including four away from Slovakia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the next round, Luxembourg will play Iceland at home, a match that will determine the fate of Iceland, and if they lose away to Luxembourg, Iceland will have little hope of overtaking them. In fact, Luxembourg will not be an opponent of Iceland at all now, and their goal is to overtake Slovakia and compete for the top two in the group to qualify directly for next year's European Championship.
Luxembourg had never reached the main draw in the history of the European Championship, and in 1964 they only had to eliminate Denmark to reach the final for the first time in history, but unfortunately they fell short. Now Luxembourg see hope, next they will compete with Slovakia for a place in the second place in the group, and if they succeed, they will do a miracle and play in the main European Championship for the first time in the team's history. Now the opportunity is in front of Luxembourg, it depends on whether they can seize it!