Iceland World Cup profile: Guide to squad, record, manager, path to final, team news, latest odds and star man

TWO years after they famously dumped England out of Euro 2016, Iceland are going to their first World Cup after winning their qualifying group.

The tiny nation of just 350,000 are keen to not just make up the numbers - and their hardworking side will fight to progress from a tough group containing Argentina, Nigeria and Croatia.

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Here's all you need to know about the Group D side.

In a nutshell: Tiny Nordic nation that sprung some very big surprises at Euro 2016. Just ask Roy Hodgson. Not to be confused with the budget frozen food supermarket of the same name. They’re also the smallest nation in history to make the World Cup finals.

Flag: The modern version of the flag was adopted in 1915 and features a blue background with a white cross and another red cross within the white cross. Got that?

Population: 348,580

Nickname: Strakarnir okkar. It translates as "Our Boys". Nice.

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Manager: Heimir Hallgrimsson took sole charge of the team after Euro 2016, having been joint manager with Lars Lagerbeck.

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Captain: Cardiff City’s workhorse midfielder Aron Gunnarsson.

Star Man: Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson is the man that everything goes through in the Iceland set-up. A master of the dead ball, he’s a constant threat from set-pieces.

Rising star: Twenty-year- old PSV Eindhoven winger Albert Gudmundsson has three goals in three caps, although that was a hat-trick against Indonesia. He’s also the great-grandson of Albert Gudmundsson, Iceland’s first professional footballer, who played for Arsenal and AC Milan.

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Most caps: Former Lillestrom, Lokeren and Reykjavik midfielder Runar Kristonsson, (104).

All-time top scorer: It’s former Chelsea and Barcelona star Eidur Gudjohnsen (26).

Nice kit? Inspired by ice, water, fire and geysers, Iceland’s new World Cup kit is the business. All blue with striking flashes of red and white on the shoulders, it’s the kind of kit France wish they had.

Most offensive haircut? Aston Villa’s Birkir Bjarnason’s barnet is equal parts Norse God, part Joanna Lumley.

Any names we can laugh at like kids? Goalkeeper Frederick Schram – but only because he’s the only player out of the dozens that have been called up in recent years whose name doesn’t end in "son".

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Rivals? They have a bit of a beef with their former oppressors Denmark but nothing to write home about. Not that you would write home about it.

National anthem: Lofsungur is quite possibly the hardest anthem of all to sing at the World Cup this summer. Our tip? Don’t bother.

Sample lyric:
We live as waving, waving straws.
We die, if you aren't the light and the life,
that lifts us from the dust.
Oh, be the sweetest every morning,
our leader through troubled times.

National dish: Anyone fancy a hunk of hakarl for tea? It’s fermented shark and it properly stinks.

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National drink: It’s the schnapps-like Brennivin. It’s also called svarti dauði which means "black death". Tells you all you need to know really.

World Cup Finals Record: n/a

World Cup Win Ratio: n/a

Best World Cup Performance: This is their first appearance in the World
Cup Finals.

FIFA World Ranking: 18

Path to final: Iceland will need to upset the odds the way they did in Euro 2016 to get out of their World Cup group, but they already have a psychological advantage over Croatia .

In the event of a second placed finish behind Argentina, they will probably face France in round two, Portugal or Uruguay in the quarter-final and Brazil in the semi-final.