Iceland head home from World Cup, heartbroken but unbowed

Gallant Iceland headed home heartbroken but unbowed after a premature end to their first World Cup adventure, ruing what might have been after a narrow defeat by Croatia.

Iceland caught the public imagination with their fairy tale run to the quarter-finals at Euro 2016 in France and waltzed through qualifying for Russia, topping their group, which included Croatia. At the World Cup they held their own in a section that also featured Argentina and Nigeria but were left to regret a string of near misses in their final match before Ivan Perisic sealed their fate with a last-minute winner on Tuesday.

“It’s sad to go out after that performance. We had more inside us and thought we would go further in the tournament,” said Sverrir Ingason. “That was our best game of the World Cup, we had many chances to score,” added the defender, whose second-half header hit the crossbar. After Milan Badelj put Croatia ahead early in the second half, a Gylfi Sigurdsson equaliser from a penalty meant the Nordic side were a goal away from their first-ever World Cup victory and a berth in the next round. “We left everything on the pitch today. We go home proud from our first and not last World Cup,” said striker Alfred Finnbogason on Twitter alongside a picture of his shot which whistled past the post. “We had chances to win it so of course there is disappointment,” said coach Heimir Hallgrimsson. “But we did everything we could. If you do that you shouldn’t be disappointed. We can look each other in the eye, hold our heads high.”