Croatia defeated Iceland 2-1 here on Tuesday to go into the knockout rounds of the 2018 FIFA World Cup as the top team in Group D. Milan Badelj (53rd) and Ivan Perisic (90th) scored for Croatia. Gylfi Sigurdsson had rekindled some momentary hopes for Iceland when he converted a penalty in the 76th minute. Croatia finished the group stage with nine points, having won all their three matches.

Iceland finished at the bottom of the group with one point. It was a disappointing end to their campaign, which had started with a lot of promise when they held formidable Argentina 1-1 in their opening match. After the match, Croatia coach Zlatko Dali said, "We have three wins, nine points, with a goal difference of 7-1. That only goal we got was from the penalty, so we have to be happy. The first place was our goal, we did it. I am convinced that this game in the Round of 16 will not be our end, we are waiting for Sunday to show the true power, this is the day of truth for us." (Check out the video highlights of the match here).

Whereas the Iceland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson said that he is proud of the team."We have not played many games like this one, against a strong team like Croatia, and created so many chances so we are disappointed with that but I am proud of the performance and the character. We were unlucky today but we can carry our heads high and say we did everything we could,” said Hallgrimsson.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 27, 2018 10:18 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).