England vs Iceland Friendly Preview

England host Iceland at Wembley Stadium in their final warm-up friendly for UEFA Euro 2024.

After their win over Bosnia & Herzegovina, this is England’s last chance to build momentum for the Euros, especially after manager – Gareth Southgate opted to name his final squad earlier than anticipated.

 

Team News

England have no fresh injury concerns to report but James Trafford, Jarrad Branthwaite, Jarell Quansah, Harry Maguire, Curtis Jones, James Maddison and Jack Grealish have left the camp, after they were omitted from the final squad.

Luke Shaw (hamstring) remains sidelined but is in the tournament squad.

Iceland will be without Mikael Egill Ellertsson and Hlynur Freyr Karlsson due to injury.

 

When is Kick-Off?

England host Iceland on Friday 7 June at Wembley Stadium, London, at 8pm BST, live on Channel 4 in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• England drew 1-1 against Iceland in their only previous international friendly in Reykjavik in June 1982.
• Iceland are playing away to England in a friendly for the first time, although they are winless in two previous away visits across all competitions (L2).
• England have scored 10 goals and conceded one goal in their two previous home games against Iceland in all competitions.
• Each of England’s opening goals in their last two matches were scored from the penalty spot, courtesy of Ivan Tony and Cole Palmer against Belgium and Bosnia & Herzegovina respectively.
• Albert Gudmundsson has scored four goals in Iceland’s last two matches but isn’t part of the squad.

 

Prediction

Having surprisingly named his squad earlier than anticipated, Southgate surely will begin to show his hand a bit with his starting selection which should allow us to see where England stand going into the tournament.

Iceland meanwhile have had some time to prepare for this match but given their poor friendly record away to England, they will need to be at their defensive best but they’re capable of nicking goal such is their goalscoring form.

I however do expect England to have the edge in front of the home crowd because this is a huge opportunity to fire a warning to their rivals going into the Euros, but this won’t be easy and they need to gel faster than they did against Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Prediction: England 2-1 Iceland

Result: England 0-1 Iceland