Iceland shock Argentina with draw

Moments after France battled for maximum points with win against Australia courtesy of Paul Pogba winning goal, gritty Iceland turned the world on its head with the performance of their lives on Saturday. Striker Alfred Finbogason slid home the first half goal that earned an astonishing point after Sergio Aguero had put Argentina the 2014 finalists ahead. It was a game of odds as Messi missed a penalty and fluffed several free-kicks. He was simply off-colour.

Hero keeper Hannes Halldorsson pulled off a magnificent diving stop from Lionel Messi’s second half penalty as one of the greatest fairytales in the history of football went on.

The smallest nation ever to reach the finals – 340,000 population to Argentina’s 44 million – missed a glorious chance to go ahead on nine minutes when Aston Villa midfielder Birkir Bjarnasson put his shot wide from 14 yards with keeper Willy Caballero nowhere.

England’s Euro 2016 conquerors seemed to have paid for that when, ten minutes later, Man City idol Aguero turned in the box to carve a shot high beyond the helpless Halldorsson.

But the courage and desire of Heimar Hallgrimsson’s side is legendary – and back they stormed to level, former Edinburgh schoolboy Finbogasson sidefooting home after Caballero could only push out Gylfi Sigurdsson’s low angled drive.

The 5,000 Icelandic fans, every one of them seeming to be in replica royal blue shirts, roared till the rafters shook, outnumbered six-to-one by the South Americans but never, ever outshouted.

You could say the same about their heroes on the pitch, vastly inferior in terms of experience, transfer values and global recognition, yet forever willing.

Rookie midfielder Albert Gudmunsson had famously put it on the eve of the match – to jump in front of a train for each other.

And as their sheer force of will began to weaken Argentina’s, they really should have been ahead at the break, first Sigurdsson’s jinking run and teasing shot fingertipped away by Caballero, then the Everton maverick volleying wide from the edge of the box.

Diego Maradona was seen in the stands… wearing two watches and red shades.

Again, it seemed they’d pay the price when Ever Banega lunged to meet Messi’s 64th minute cross, hit the deck and Polish ref Szymin Marciniak pointed to the spot.

Halldorsson eyeballed the Barcelona megastar from 12 yards – then dived to his right to parry the left-footed drive to safety.

Again and again after that, Messi raced at the minnows, trying every trick he knew to open the door to the victory his homeland demanded.

But each time, Iceland stood firm – and no one on earth could begrudge them their moment of glory.