Iceland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson has issued an urgent plea for his fellow countrymen to turn out for their date with Nigeria in Volgograd on Friday. Icelanders were vastly outnumbered by Argentinians in their famous 1-1 draw with Lionel Messi and company in Moscow’s Spartak Stadium on Saturday. “Strangely we had difficulties in buying tickets. It was sold out for Iceland,” he said at the post-match press conference. “I can’t see where all the Argentinians bought their tickets because we could have sold much more in Iceland. We’ll have to discover (how to get) more for our next games.”

Sweden won an opening World Cup game for the first time since 1958 and ended a worrying goal drought with a 1-0 victory over South Korea.

AC Milan striker Nikola Kalinic has returned home from Croatia’s World Cup squad due to a back injury, coach Zlatko Dalic confirmed on Monday.

World Cup standings after Sunday’s Group E and Group F matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points):

AS Nigerians come to terms with the dreadful outing of the Super Eagles against Croatia in their opening game of the World Cup in Russia, many have been dissecting the team to find solution that may offer Nigeria an escape route into the second round of the competition to avoid the impending doom of exit that stares them in the face in the first round.