If Iceland had any opening-night jitters before the first World Cup game in its history, its players did a pretty good job of hiding them Saturday, with the smallest country ever to qualify for the tournament holding fifth-ranked Argentina, a country that has won it twice, to a 1-1 draw.
Sergio Aguero scored for Argentina and Alfred Finnbogason countered for Iceland minutes later. But the story of the game was Iceland’s gutty resilience to withstand 90 minutes of relentless pressure.
Then in the 79th minute, with Messi making a run at the near post, Iceland’s Birkir Saevarsson reached out and took the ball off his foot and nudged it over the end line.