Iceland won the hearts of football fans the world over after their stirring debut at Euro 2016. The smallest nation ever to appear at the finals of a major tournament, Our Boys topped a group that included eventual champions Portugal and David Alaba’s Austria, and dumped out 1966 World Cup winners England in the last 16, before bowing out to hosts France. They said it couldn’t get any better for Finnbogason and the gang, but it did. Iceland pipped Croatia to the post, qualifying automatically for the World Cup for the first time.
Augsburg striker Finnbogason made eight appearances in qualifying, scoring in successive games against Ukraine, Finland and Turkey – and he might have added more but for injury. The 29-year-old also missed a chunk of the 2017/18 Bundesliga campaign – although his 12 goals and three assists in 22 outings are hardly numbers to scoff at. With former Hoffenheim midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson supplying the ammunition, the rangy fox in the box could do some real damage as Iceland prepare to fight fire, ice and Finnbogason with Argentina, Croatia and Nigeria in Group D.