Fairytale: Iceland Became The Smallest Country Ever To Reach The World Cup

iceland (1)
iceland (1)

Iceland will make their first appearance at a World Cup finals next summer after winning their qualification group.

Gylfi Sigurdsson scored the opener against Kosovo in Reykjavik after 40 minutes before Johann Gudmundsson added a second in the second half.

It was a remarkable achievement for a country which has a population of about 350,000. The previous smallest country to have reached the finals was Trinidad & Tobago, in 2006, with 1.3 million people.

Coached by part-time dentist Heimir Hallgrimsson, Iceland finished the group with 22 points from their 10 games.

Elsewhere in Group I, Finland drew 2-2 to Turkey.  Paulus Arajuuriand Joel Pohjanpalo scored for Finland while Turkey got both goals from Cenk Tosun in Turku.

Elsewhere Wales were bundled out of the qualifiers after losing one nil to Republic of Ireland, Spain who have already qualified beat Israel one nil while Italy secured a one nil win over Albania.
-Dailymail