Iceland will head back to the top of Group A with victory in Kazakhstan this afternoon and look a decent price to do so.
Saturday’s visitors started the campaign with a trio of superb wins, including a memorable 2-0 triumph over the Netherlands, but they have been improving for a few seasons now and perhaps it should be no surprise.
A brace of 3-0 successes over Turkey and Latvia came before the beating of Guus Hiddink’s men and the heat is on in this tough section to qualify for the finals of Euro 2016.
Iceland’s perfect start came to an end in Prague in November, when beaten 2-1 by the Czech Republic, but there was no disgrace in that reversal with the victors that day yet to drop a point on the road to France next summer.
Looking forward to this afternoon’s match and Iceland have proved they can get the job done on the road in competitive fixtures of late. In their bid to reach Brazil 2014 Iceland picked up eight excellent points away from home and finished second best only to Switzerland in the standings.
Iceland shared eight goals in a memorable match versus the Swiss in Bern, beat Slovenia and Albania while drawing in Norway on their travels, and Kazakhstan are hardly one of Europe’s footballing powerhouses.
Swansea City’s Gylfi Sigurdsson was the hero for Iceland against the Dutch, scoring twice in the first half in October to land his side the spoils, and Iceland’s main man will be looking forward to getting stuck into a Kazakh defence that concede plenty of chances to their opponents.
Bottom of the section having picked up just one point from four matches, 10 goals have been shipped already and this prolific Iceland side will surely find the net at least once during the 90 minutes.
It is the first match on what could prove to be a pivotal afternoon in Group A and I take Iceland to strike an early blow. They are getting well backed but some 19/20 still remains and that looks more than acceptable.
3pts Back Iceland (vs. Kazakstan) @ 19/20 (Betfred)