Preview: Iceland vs Ukraine - prediction, team news, lineups

Iceland will be looking to return to winning ways in Group D when they resume their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign with a home game against Ukraine on Friday night.

Our Boys are second in the section on three points, three behind the leaders France, while the visitors are third, picking up only a point from their opening two qualification fixtures.

Match preview

Iceland were outstanding in their section opener against Azerbaijan on September 5, recording a 5-0 victory, and they also put in a strong performance in their second game against France four days later.

Andri Gudjohnsen struck to give Arnar Gunnlaugsson's side a shock lead against the two-time World Cup winners, but the Blues managed to turn it around to record a 2-1 victory and remain perfect in Group D.

Iceland will be aware of the importance of this match, as they bid to claim a top-two spot in the section, and a victory would lead them nicely into a huge home game with France on October 13.

Our Boys famously qualified for the finals of the 2018 World Cup, while they also made the quarter-finals of Euro 2016 during an impressive period, but the national side have failed to qualify for the last three major tournaments.

Iceland have only faced Ukraine on five previous occasions, and they have posted just one win - a 2-0 success during their qualification process for the 2018 World Cup.

Ukraine have posted two wins in their five previous games against Iceland, including a 2-1 success when the two teams met in a Euro 2024 playoff in March 2024, which secured their spot in the finals.

The Blue and Yellows have not actually qualified for the finals of a World Cup since famously reaching the quarter-finals of the 2006 competition, but they have been present at the last four European Championships.

Ukraine opened their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign with a 2-0 defeat to France on September 5 before playing out a 1-1 draw with Azerbaijan four days later.

Sergiy Rebrov's side are third in Group D, five points behind the leaders France, while they are two points from second-placed Iceland, so a defeat in this match would be damaging.

Ukraine's last competitive win was a standout 3-1 victory over Belgium back in March, and there is no question that they have the quality to cause Iceland issues in this match.

Iceland World Cup Qualifying - Europe form:

Iceland form (all competitions):

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Ukraine World Cup Qualifying - Europe form:

Ukraine form (all competitions):

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Team News

Iceland are once again expected to have Daniel Gudjohnsen and Andri Gudjohnsen in the final third of the field for Friday's World Cup qualification match with Ukraine.

The latter was on the scoresheet in the 2-1 defeat to France last time out, and due to the impressiveness of the performance in that match, few changes are expected here.

Isak Bergmann Johannesson has scored twice in this qualification campaign, and he will be another notable starter, while there should be a spot in midfield for Lille's Hakon Arnar Haraldsson.

As for Ukraine, head coach Rebrov could name close the same side that took to the field for the first whistle against Azerbaijan last time out, but Oleksandr Zinchenko is out due to injury.

Heorhiy Sudakov and Oleksandr Zubkov were standout performers in the team's last match, and the pair should again feature in a forward area, while Vladyslav Vanat is likely to be given the nod down the middle.

Vanat only has two goals in 11 appearances for Ukraine, while Artem Dovbyk has 11 in 38 caps, but the former is again expected to start as the centre-forward on Friday night.

Iceland possible starting lineup:

Olafsson; Palsson, Ingason, Gretarsson, Tomasson; Thorsteinsson, Johannesson, Haraldsson, Anderson; A Gudjohnsen, D Gudjohnsen

Ukraine possible starting lineup:

Trubin; Konoplya, Zabarnyi, Matviienko, Mykolenko; Ocheretko, Kaliuzhnyi, Bondarenko; Malinovskyi, Vanat, Sudakov

We say: Iceland 2-1 Ukraine

Iceland's performance against France last time out was excellent, and the hosts should therefore be full of confidence heading into this match - we fancy Ukraine to score, but Iceland should have enough to put a very important three points on the board.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.