Argentina fails to fly past Iceland as tie ends 1-1

Contrary to per-match permutations 2014 world cup runners up Argentina Saturday failed in their bid to flag off   world Cup campaign in Russia on a victorious note, settling for a 1-1 draw against Iceland at the , Spartak Stadium Moscow

The tie came less than 24 hours after Portugal and Spain posted a master piece performance considered the real World cup opener with Cristiano Ronaldo grabbing a hat-trick. Some analysts had posited that Ronaldo’s performance was going to put additional pressure on Argentina’s super star and Barcelona forward Lionel Messi whose unending rivalry with Ronaldo remains a talking point even at the world cup.

Messi and his teammates had started the match on an impressive note with Sergio Aguero, scoring   as early as the 19th minute.

The celebration however did not last as Iceland grabbed an equaliser four minutes later thanks to Alfreð  Finnbogason.

An opportunity for the Argentina to regain control hit the rocks with a bang after Messi lost a penalty. The penalty loss did not however stop Argentina from mounting pressures as the clocks gradually ticked to regulation time; they mounted pressures with 26 attempts with 10 attempts blocked.  Iceland defence refused to crumble despite the pressure as the Heimir Hallgrímsson coached side held their own to the end of the encounter.

The result is a huge disappointment for Messi who has been under pressure to replicate his performance with Barcelona at the national team. It didn’t look like a day destined to be good for Argentina as their performance was considered good enough to earn them victory at the end of the day posting 91% accuracy in their passes compared to 60% by Iceland.

Argentina take on Croatia at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium on Thursday evening, before Iceland then face Nigeria at the Volgograd Arena on Friday afternoon.