Our prediction for this World Cup 2026 match:
France
Match Time & Date:
9 September 2025
19:45
Prediction: 3-1
Iceland
France will be aiming to build on a 2-0 win over Ukraine when they face Iceland in their second group game in the 2026 World Cup qualifier. Les Tricolores faced no difficulties in their opener and they are seen as hot favourites to win Tuesday’s clash as well. With PSG ace Ousmane Dembele suffering a severe hamstring injury against Ukraine, Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitike is widely expected to start against Iceland.
As always, Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe will be the man to watch in the home team. Iceland, on the other hand, rolled over Azerbaijan 5-0 in the opening match of their World Cup qualifying campaign, but they will have a mountain to climb in Paris. Given the number of high-profile players in Didier Deschamps’ team, anything but a routine home win would be a big surprise. Defender Victor Palsson is unlikely to feature for the visitors after picking up a knock against Azerbaijan.
Highlighted Player (Kylian Mbappé):
Kylian Mbappe is a French footballer who plays for Paris Saint-Germain as a forward. The French rising star began his youth career at AS Bondy and in 2013 he moved to AS Monaco. After making 12 appearances for Monaco B, Kylian Mbappe made his debut for the senior team in 2015. Mbappe quickly established himself as a regular goalscorer, with the teenager finding the net 15 times in 29 appearances in the Ligue 1 in the 2016/2017 season.
In 2017 he moved to fellow French club PSG on loan, with the option of making the deal permanent. Kylian Mbappe scored 13 goals in 27 appearances for les Parisiens in the 2017/2018 and it has to be noted that Unai Emery’s troops eventually won the national championship.
Speaking of his international career, Mbappe played an important role for France at the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals, with the pacey rising star scoring a brace in a thrilling 4-3 win over Argentina in the last 16 of the showpiece tournament. The PSG attacker was born in Paris on December 20, 1998.
Highlighted Team (Iceland):
Iceland had little to no success during the first 60 years of entering the FIFA competitions, failing to qualify to a single major tournament in that period, but the team then went on to make tremendous progress at the start of the 21st century.
The Nordic side narrowly missed out on a place at the 2014 World Cup, losing in the play-off to Croatia, but they then enjoyed a thoroughly impressive qualifying campaign to reach the Euro 2016, taking 20 points from 10 matches to leave Turkey and Netherlands trailing in their wake.
As a result, the generation featuring players like Gylfi Sigurdsson, Aron Gunnarsson, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson and Emil Hallfredsson will go down as one of the most successful in the national team history and it could be quite some time before another team repeat their success. Even if he was only used as a bit-part player during the Euro 2016 qualifiers, Eidur Gudjohnsen has got to be mentioned as the first Icelandic footballer to have played for top European sides.
Brighton 
Leeds United 
Burnley
Arsenal 
Nottingham Forest 
Manchester United 
Bayern Munich 
Bayer Leverkusen
Tottenham 
Chelsea 
Liverpool
Aston Villa 
