Wales vs Iceland Preview: Team News & Prediction
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Wales have gone unbeaten in the 2024/25 UEFA Nations League but need a win with Turkey drawing or losing to stand a chance of automatic promotion to League A.
Kick-off date/time: Tuesday 19th November, 2024: UK – 7:45pm / US ET – 2:45pm / US PT – 11:45am
How to watch on TV: UK – S4C / US – FOX Sports
How to watch online: UK – BBC iPlayer & S4C / US – FOX Sports streaming platforms
Wales Preview: The Bellamy era
The appointment of Craig Bellamy over the summer has been met with a lot of excitement by Wales supporters and the former Burnley assistant coach has begun without a defeat in his opening five matches with a couple of impressive performances.
They have shared goalless draws in both games against Turkey with the reverse fixture taking place in Kayseri the other day. The Welsh do sit just two points clear of Iceland ahead of this one, though, so there is still a bit of jeopardy on this one.
Iceland Preview: Icelandic improvement
That two-point gap means that an Iceland victory at the Cardiff City Stadium this week would see the Icelanders finish second in League B Group 4 of the 2024/25 UEFA Nations League and thus earning themselves a promotion playoff game ahead of the Welsh.
With an improving squad that has some emerging talent, albeit the standout names being injured such as Albert Gudmundsson and Hakon Haraldsson, Iceland come into this one on the back of a comfortable and impressive 2-0 defeat of Montenegro the other day.
Wales Team News: Plenty of injuries
Craig Bellamy is dealing with several absentees such as Nathan Broadhead and Kieffer Moore in attack as well as captain Aaron Ramsay and the likes of Ethan Ampadu and Rabbi Matondo.
PREDICTED XI (4-2-3-1): Darlow; Roberts, Rodon, Davies, Williams; Sheehan, James; Johnson, Wilson, Thomas; Harris
UNAVAILABLE: Beck (Injured), Ampadu (Injured), Ramsey (Injured), Cooper (Injured), Matondo (Injured), Broadhead (Injured), Moore (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
Iceland Team News: Emerging talent
As mentioned, there are some key young attackers out injured but the Icelanders do also still have some impressive key emerging talents like Orri Oskarsson and Andri Gudjohnsen.
PREDICTED XI (4-4-2): Valdimarsson; Fridriksson, Ingason, Gunnarsson, Tomasson; Gudmundsson, Thordarsson, Traustason, Thorsteinsson; Oskarsson, Gudjohnsen
UNAVAILABLE: B. I. Bjarnason (Injured), Gretarsson (Injured), Finnsson (Injured), Karlsson (Injured), Haraldsson (Injured), Anderson (Injured), Gudmundsson (Injured), B. S. Bjarkason (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE: QUESTIONABLE PLAYERS HERE
Wales vs Iceland Prediction
Craig Bellamy’s style of football is attacking and they have enjoyed fast starts to games before fading as the game has gone on. However, they were a lot more defensive against Turkey the other day. They now face an Iceland side that, even with the absence of some key attackers, have an abundance of attacking players so both teams scoring would be a good bet in what could be quite an entertaining encounter at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Wales vs Iceland Tip: Over 2.5 goals