3 things Iceland got wrong in 2-0 loss to Nigeria

Nigeria turned up the heat against Iceland and kept things alive in Group D with a convincing victory. Ahmed Musa scored 2 delightful goals to help the Africans raise both theirs and Argentina's hopes of making it to the knockout stages of the World Cup.

Needing a win to keep their hopes alive, Nigeria played much better football at the Volgograd Arena than they did against Croatia and had the resolute defensive line of Iceland gasping for breath with their fast and direct football.

Nigeria will now play Argentina while Iceland will take on Croatia. Anything could happen in this group and if today's performance is anything to go by, Jorge Sampaoli's men will find it hard to keep Nigerians at bay.

Without further ado, let's take a look at the 3 things Nigeria got right in their 2-0 win against Iceland.

---

#3 Iceland couldn't handle the pace of Nigeria's new system

The sluggishness that marred their opening match at the World Cup clearly needed to be dealt with and Gernot Rohr decided to switch things up a bit. He switched to a 3-5-2 and condemned Iwobi to the bench while giving chances to Kelechi Iheanacho, Kenneth Omeruo, and Ahmed Musa.

As a result, Nigeria were looking ominous on the counter, particularly in the second half. Ahmed Musa was brought in to inject much-needed pace and he was an absolute treat to watch. Both Nigeria's goals were scored from counter attacks.

4 minutes into the second half, Ahmed Musa stirred his stumps and ran past Ragnar Sigurdsson before trapping the ball with an outstretched leg and feeding the goal with a thumping strike past Hannes Halldorsson.

For the second goal, Musa was picked out by Omeruo from left back with a long floated ball and Musa motored into the box, darting away from Arnason. He rounded up Arnason and kept his composure and coolly picked his spot.

Birkir Már Sævarsson, Arnason, Sigurdsson and Magnusson all struggled to keep up.

#2 Wasteful in front of goal

Sigurdsson missed from the spot

Iceland started the game brightly with Gylfi Sigurdsson forcing Uzoho to make 2 saves within the first 6 of the match. Birkir Mar Saevarsson kept delivering some driven balls into the area but nobody could get any telling contact on them.

Finnbogason missed from a sumptuous Gylfi Sigurdsson set-piece delivery and that's as close as Iceland came to scoring in the first half. But what Iceland will regret the most is Sigurdsson's missed penalty.

VAR ruled that Tyronne Ebuehi had fouled Finnbogason inside the area and Sigurdsson shot straight into the stands after sending Uzoho the wrong way. If they had snatched the goal back, they could have orchestrated a way back but it just wasn't going to be their day.

#1 Iceland looked out of sorts after going behind

Iceland can still salvage their situation

Iceland struck back against Argentina immediately after going behind but Heimir Hallgrimsson's men looked out of their depths after going behind against the Nigerians. Though they did get into dangerous areas, the final ball was lacking and they seemed incapable of putting a goal past Uzoho for the last 30 minutes.

They also started committing more men forward which opened up a lot of space in Nigeria's attacking third. This ultimately led to the second goal as Musa sprinted past Arnason to complete his brace.

Sigurdsson missing from the spot happened after they went 2-0 down. Iceland are much more than just part-time professional footballers but on the big stage, they're going to have to give a better account of themselves especially during times that can test a team's character.