World Cup 2018: Nine facts about Argentina vs Iceland

Argentina will play against debutants Iceland and these are the things you need to know about the tie

This will be the first ever encounter between Argentina and Iceland.

Argentina have lost just one of their last seven World Cup group games against European opposition (won four, drew two). That defeat came at the hands of England in 2002.

Argentina have kept a clean sheet in three of their last four World Cup clashes against European teams, although they've failed to net in the last two as well, including the 2014 final against Germany.

Argentina have qualified for their 17th World Cup - and 12th in a row. In fact, since 1978, only Germany (five) have reached the World Cup final on more occasions than Argentina (four).

Argentina have gone past the group stage in 11 of their last 12 World Cup appearances, the only exception coming in 2002. In fact, they have won 12 of their last 15 group games (drew two, lost one), their only defeat coming against England in 2002.

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Argentina have also topped their group in each of the last three World Cups. They have also won their opening game in each of the last six editions.

Iceland have qualified for their first World Cup and their second major tournament after Euro 2016 where they reached the quarter-finals. Slovakia were the last World Cup debutants to make it to the knockout stages of the tournament (2010).

Gylfi Sigurdsson was top scorer (four goals) and joint-top appearance maker (10 games) for Iceland in the qualifiers for Russia 2018.

This is Heimir Hallgrímsson's second major tournament as manager after Euro 2016 where he was joint-manager alongside Lars Lagerbäck. He took sole control after Euro 2016.