World Cup

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Attendance: 44,190

World Cup | Group Stage

Jun 16, 2018 at 2pm UK

Argentina
1-1
Iceland Iceland

Aguero (19')

FT(HT: 1-1)

Finnbogason (23')

Hannes Halldorsson: 'I did homework for Lionel Messi penalty'

By Jonny Whitfield, Reporter

Published: June 17 2018 | 12:58

Last updated: June 18 2018 | 07:27

Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson reveals that he studied Lionel Messi's past penalties to help earn his side a point against Argentina.

Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson has revealed that he studied Lionel Messi's past penalties to help earn his side a point against Argentina.

Halldorsson dived to his right to save Messi's second-half penalty, which prevented the South Americans from going 2-1 up in Moscow on Saturday.

Sergio Aguero had given Argentina the lead, before Messi failed to restore his side's advantage after Alfred Finnbogason had responded with his strike.

"I did some homework because I knew this was a situation that could come up. It was a long shot but it happened," the goalkeeper said. "I looked at a lot of penalties from Messi and I also looked at how I've been behaving during the last couple of penalties.

"I tried to get in their minds, so they'd be thinking about me. I had a good feeling he'd go this way today. We were playing against one of the best teams in the world, who had the best player in the world.

"It's especially important for us because it helped us get a point to reach our goal - to get out of the group."

Iceland's next match is against Nigeria on Friday.