Iceland have a historic opportunity to qualify for a major tournament, but for that to happen the Nordic side need to defeat Croatia in the first leg.

Vatreni have been utterly disappointing of late and they clearly need to show a massive improvement if they are to avoid a big surprise.

For quite a while now, Iceland have been showing a lot of promise, but without the end result, and this is the first time they have come even close to qualifying for tournament finals.

While their qualifying group was not that difficult, Lars Lagerback’s side did really well to pip Slovenia, Norway and Albania to the second place, and I don’t think they were too disappointed to be pitted against out-of-sorts Croatia.

The likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson and veteran Eidur Gudjohnsen will be the men to watch, but it is the excellent atmosphere in the side and great team spirit that are considered Iceland’s biggest strengths.

With the team winning their last three matches at home, there may be some value in odds of 4.40 (17/5) offered at BetVictor for a home win.

Defender Birkir Saevarsson misses out through suspension, but Lars Lagerback has no other selection worries at the moment.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-1-2): Halldorsson – Ottesen, R. Sigurdsson, Arnason, Skulason – Bjarnason, Gunnarsson, Gudmundsson – G. Sigurdsson – Sigthorsson, Finnbogason.

Croatia had established themselves as one of Europe’s top sides under Slaven Bilic, but new boss Igor Stimac quickly proved to be a very bad choice.

Despite having some world-class players at his disposal, the inexperienced boss couldn’t get his team to play up to their potential and in the end narrowly avoided missing out on the play-off berth as well.

The national team chiefs acted after back to back defeats to Belgium and Scotland, replacing Stimac with Robert Kovac, which should help Vatreni improve the atmosphere in the squad.

Online bookmakers still see Croatia as the favourites to win the first leg, with away win available at 2.05 (21/20) at Ladbrokes.

Sammir and Ognjen Vukojevic have been overlooked, while Ivica Olic is unlikely to start despite recovering from injury.

Danijel Subasic is back from an ankle problem, whereas Ivan Strinic has been ruled out with a thigh injury. No less than ten players are one yellow away from suspension.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Pletikosa – Srna, Corluka, Lovren, Simunic – Rakitic, Modric, Kovacic, Kranjcar – Mandzukic, Eduardo.