We have reached the final round of fixtures in the 2020/21 UEFA Nations League. On Wednesday the 18th of November we have a match between England and Iceland at Wembley Stadium in League A, Group 1.
Both teams have little to play for in terms of the outcome of the group, with England unable to finish top and Iceland already relegated to League B for next season.
However, England will want to deliver a strong performance in what has been a disappointing Nations League campaign. The major difficulty for the England team has been scoring goals and they started the group with a narrow 1-0 win in Iceland.
That was followed by a poor 0-0 draw in Denmark but England appeared to have turned a corner with the 2-1 home victory over group favourites Belgium.
All the good work in that game was quickly undone as England slumped to a 1-0 defeat at home by Denmark. That was followed by another disappointing performance in Belgium in their most recent game as England lost 2-0. The Three Lions failed to create any good goal scoring chances in the match.
England will point to their home form for comfort and they have won 10 of their last 11 home matches in all competitions. They have managed to score 2 or more goals in 9 of their last 10 on home soil but have kept just a single clean sheet in their last 3 at Wembley Stadium.
Iceland have endured a difficult Nations League campaign and regardless of the result in this game they will finish bottom of the group. They started with a 1-0 loss at home against England but will feel they should have taken at least a point from that match. Having opened the scoring in their next fixture in Belgium, Iceland went on to concede 5 goals and lost the game.
Then came an extremely disappointing 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Denmark in a match Iceland were hoping to pick up their first points of the group. They fell 1-0 down on the stroke of half time and conceded a second goal in the first minute of the second half which all but ended their chances of taking something from the match.
Iceland appeared set to take a point from the away fixture against Denmark having equalised in the 85th minute but the concession of a penalty in injury time saw Denmark score the winning goal.
Trends show Iceland are on a run of 4 consecutive defeats and have lost each of their 3 on the road. However, they have scored in each of their last 4 away games.
Team news and England are sure to make changes from the team which started in Belgium. Nick Pope, Michael Keane, Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and Tammy Abraham could all start.
Iceland will also freshen up their starting XI with Victor Pálsson, Aron Gunnarsson, Vidhar Kjartansson, and Alfreð Finnbogason potentially coming into the team.
There is pressure on England to win this game and do so in style. That could lead to a more open match than we have recently seen featuring the English, who could win this game with both teams scoring.