FUTURE IS BRIGHT

FROM BACK PAGE first and only appearance to date on that stage.

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While their Euro 2016 showing was impressive, few would have tipped his side to top a group that included Croatia, Turkey, Ukraine and Finland - but that's exactly what they did, when they won seven and lost just two of their 10 qualifying matches.

Once again, he is faced with a tricky qualification campaign - and Hallgrímsson reckons he has a stronger hand now than he did when he was in charge of Iceland.

He said: "I think we have a strong team, we are all in sync, we have all been tactically improving in every camp, in my opinion. And, like I said, there are more and more leaders emerging.

"This is a young squad that, in the past, didn't have many wins, so confidence was low.