An own goal and a penalty gave Croatia a comfortable start to their World Cup campaign as they beat Nigeria 2-0 in their Group D clash at the Kaliningrad Stadium on Saturday. Reacting to the debacle against Croatia, Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr highlighted his team’s weakness in defending at set-pieces, and said victory against Iceland next Friday was now a necessity.
Earlier, Minnows Iceland made a stunning World Cup appearance on Saturday when they held 2014 World cup runners-up Argentina to a 1-1 draw in a dramatic match where No.10 Lionel Messi wasted Argentina’s chance to win after his penalty was saved by Iceland’s Hannes Por Halldorsson.
| Group D Points Table | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Matches | Won | Draw | Lost | GF | GA | GD | Points |
| Croatia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Argentina | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Iceland | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Nigeria | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 0 |
In the Argentina-Iceland clash, Sergio Aguero gave the two-time world champions the lead after 19 minutes of the Group D match. However, Iceland, who stunned the soccer world with their run to the quarter-finals of the European Championship two years ago, showed exactly the same commitment and self-belief to hit back four minutes later through Alfred Finnbogason.
(with agency inputs)
Source: Zee News