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What Hannes Halldorsson Has Said About Saving Lionel Messi's Penalty

What Hannes Halldorsson Has Said About Saving Lionel Messi's Penalty

The Iceland keeper prevented Messi from scoring at the 2018 World Cup.

Nasir Jabbar

Nasir Jabbar

A dream come true.

The Iceland football team continued to do their country proud on the international stage following Saturday's hard fought 1-1 draw against Argentina.

After making their first major international appearance at the 2016 European Championships, Iceland officially debuted at the World Cup, taking a point off two-time winners, Argentina.

And the Scandinavian minnows had to come from behind after Sergio Aguero bagged his first World Cup goal to give his side an early lead.

Alfred Finnbogason eventually leveled to share the points.

The biggest talking point, though, came in the shape of Iceland stopper Hannes Halldorsson saving Lionel Messi's second-half penalty.

Following his heroics between the sticks, Halldorsson has admitted it's a dream to save a penalty from the 'best player in the world'.

"For me, as a goalkeeper, to play for Iceland in the first game of the World Cup, to face the best player in the world at a penalty is a big moment.

"It's a dream come true to save it."

Prior to the Group D match, Halldorsson also reveals he did homework on Messi's penalties.

"I did some homework because I knew this was a situation that could come up. It was a long shot but it happened," he said.

"I looked at a lot of penalties from Messi and I also looked at how I've been behaving during the last couple of penalties.

"I tried to get in their minds, so they'd be thinking about me. I had a good feeling he'd go this way today."

Halldorsson saves Messi's penalty. Image: PA
Halldorsson saves Messi's penalty. Image: PA

Halldorsson added: "It is a big draw for us, we felt at last Euros how important it is to get on the board right away if we are going to reach our goal to qualify.

"We were playing against one of the best teams in the world, against the best players in the world, in our first World Cup."

While comparing Saturday's feeling to drawing against Portugal at Euro 2016.

"Exactly the same as in the Euros, we celebrated a point against Cristiano Ronaldo as we did against Messi."

Iceland resume their World Cup campaign against Nigeria on Friday, before facing Croatia.

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Football News, Football, Lionel Messi, World Cup, Iceland

Nasir Jabbar is a journalist at SPORTbible. He graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA in Media Communications. He's a combat sport aficionado, and has contributed to MMA websites AddictedMMA and CagePotato. Nasir has covered some of the biggest fights, while interviewing the likes of Conor McGregor, Darren Till, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. He's also an avid Bristol City fan.

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