Iceland vs Hungary Betting Tips & Predictions

The Iceland fans packed into the Stade Geoffrey-Guichard on Tuesday night to watch their national football team play their first ever major competition match. With well over 5% of Iceland’s population in Saint-Etienne, the heroes of the hour certainly didn’t disappoint.

They were outclassed at times from a much more talented Portugal side, but they managed to limit their scoring opportunities until Nani swept home a cross in the 31st minute. Portugal searched for a second before the break but the minnows of the competition held them off, and they came out after the break and continued their counter-attacking style. Some excellent play down the right wing gave Johann Gudmundsson enough space to float a cross into the box, and a defensive mix up left Birkir Bjarnason free to volley home the equaliser for an ecstatic Iceland. Portugal kicked off with renewed pace and vigour, but the determination of the Iceland defenders was too much for them, and apart from a few long range strikes and a glaring miss from Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal offered very little. Iceland could even have nicked it late on when a sweetly struck volley went straight at Rui Patricio.

This was pretty much the perfect start for Iceland, who once again showed their fighting spirit on the big stage. They have been disappointing in the friendlies leading up to Euro 2016, losing six of their nine outings, but they know how to step up their play in competitive games. This showed when they beat Netherlands twice in qualifying and got a 2-1 win against Czech Republic. Their quality may be limited, but their desire and commitment cannot be understated after the Portugal game.

Hungary can’t be faulted either though. They came into Euro 2016 after a 44 year hiatus from the European Championships and were fully expected to finish bottom of the group.

They lined up with the oldest player to ever play in the Euros in goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly, and in terms of quality they are undoubtedly worse off than the Austria side containing David Alaba, Marko Arnautovic, and Marc Janko. As Iceland showed, quality isn’t everything. Alaba hit the post just 32 seconds in and he forced a save out of Kiraly under ten minutes later. But Hungary started to grow in confidence after they held off that early Austrian pressure, and Zoltan Gera nearly put the underdogs ahead. Hungary continued to impress after the break as well, and with under half an hour to go Adam Szalai followed up on a nice little one-two to slide in the opener. It got worse for Austria, as just two minutes later a bad challenge from key centre back Aleksandar Dragovic led to him receiving his second yellow card of the evening. Austria pressed for the equaliser but really didn’t create many clear cut openings. Hungary capitalised on the increased amount of space when Zoltan Stieber raced through the back line and coolly chipped the ball over the onrushing Almer.

This shock result puts Hungary in with a great chance of qualifying from their group, and really a point against Iceland should be enough for them. Iceland will be pressing for a win though, as they know that that should be enough to see them historically make it to the knockout stages.

Hungary are definitely a difficult side to beat though, having lost just two of their last 13 matches. Both teams will be a lot more adventurous in this game compared to their opener, as they will both feel it is a very winnable match. This should lead to more attacking openings, and hopefully more goals.

Iceland have scored in each of their last ten matches, but they have only kept two clean sheets during that period as well. Hungary’s clean sheet against Austria was their 4th in their last ten matches, and they have scored at the other end in seven of these ten games.

This, plus the fact that both of these impressive sides will be on the front foot more often, makes odds of 10/11 for Both Teams to Score look good value. I’m expecting it to be a very even game in general, but I think Iceland could nick it as they need the result more than their opponents, so I’m going for a 2-1 win for Iceland at 10/1.