North Macedonia vs Iceland Predictions

• North Macedonia have failed to win their last three home games.
• Iceland have avoided defeat in four of their last five World Cup qualifying matches.
• Iceland have kept back-to-back clean sheets.

Pressure fully on hosts in tense group denouement

North Macedonia’s win in Armenia coupled with Romania’s failure to beat Iceland at home on Thursday has set up an intriguing finale to Group J.

But the downside of the situation for Blagoja Milevski’s men is that they have performed much better on the road than in Skopje since World Cup qualifying began earlier this year. They will also face an opponent that is showing signs of improvement as they transition from an established generation of players to a group of bright new international prospects.

Arnar Vidarsson stepped up from the Iceland U21 set-up last year and has gradually blended more and more youngsters into the senior side and, while they were nowhere near able to challenge for the playoffs, Our Boys have restored some fallen pride.

Improving Iceland have nothing to lose

The visitors performed well enough to win against Romania on Thursday, albeit the hosts had some chances too, and will arrive in Skopje in confident mood with nothing to lose.

That could be a dangerous combination for a side such as North Macedionia, who now have much to lose if they cannot at least match Romania’s result in Liechtenstein. The odds-on price for a side who drew at home to Armenia and Romania to get the three points they crave is somewhat unattractive in the circumstances.

Iceland do offer good prospects to avoid defeat here, though and look like a bit of value in the double chance market. Defensively they look stable in front of an emerging talent between the posts and they have dogged workers in midfield and attack if not quite enough quality to punish teams just yet.

North Macedonia’s failure to score in their last three home qualifiers and Iceland’s run of back-to-back clean sheets points towards this being a low-scoring game and potentially another 0-0.