Iceland pulled off a stunning draw in its opening match against Lionel Messi and Argentina, while Nigeria failed to secure a positive result against Croatia in its Group D opener. Now, these two teams will face off on Friday at 11:00 a.m. ET in a crucial 2018 World Cup match. Odds-wise, Vegas views these two World Cup teams as virtually even to win. Iceland is +170 on the money line, meaning you'd need to wager $100 on an Iceland victory to win $170. Nigeria is +175, while a draw is +210. The Over-Under on total goals scored is 2. Iceland is at 200-1 World Cup odds to win it all, while Nigeria is 1,000-1.
Before you enter your 2018 World Cup picks, you have to see what European soccer expert David Sumpter has to say. Sumpter is an applied mathematician who wrote "Soccermatics: Mathematical Adventures in the Beautiful Game," a book that explains how math works inside the sport. Together with other experienced analysts, Sumpter developed the powerful Soccerbot model.
The Soccerbot reads current odds and all team performance data, calculates key metrics and predicts upcoming matches. In nearly three seasons since its inception, the Soccerbot is up an incredible 1,800 percent on bookmakers' closing odds.
The Soccerbot already nailed Brazil-Switzerland playing to a draw (+360), Argentina-Iceland ending in a draw (+385) and Segenal upsetting Poland (+220), just to name a few of its spot-on predictions.
Now, the Soccerbot has digested the film, crunched the numbers and broken down every single player on Iceland and Nigeria's Russia 2018 rosters. The model has released a very strong money-line pick, which it's sharing over at SportsLine.
The model knows Nigeria played evenly with Croatia in its opener, but couldn't break through on the scoreboard in a 2-0 defeat. The Nigerians possessed the ball 47 percent of the time and had several quality scoring opportunities, but couldn't find the back of the net.
In order to advance to the 2018 World Cup knockout stage, Nigeria will almost assuredly need a victory. The Nigerians are led by rising star Kelechi Iheanacho, the 22-year-old Leicester City forward with eight international goals in his brief career.
The model also knows Iceland made its World Cup debut with a stunning 1-1 draw against Argentina. They were able to hold Argentina's potent attack to just one goal with an extremely organized defensive unit. While Iceland's defense was impressive in its opening match, Alfred Finnbogason found the net once again. He has scored in his last three appearances for Iceland.
However, Iceland could be without Johann Berg Gudmundsson against Nigeria, who suffered an injury in the team's opening match. With a positive result against Nigeria, Iceland would be the first team to avoid defeat in its opening two World Cup matches since Senegal in 2002.
So which hungry nation wins Friday? Or does it end in a draw? Visit SportsLine now to see the strong Iceland-Nigeria money-line pick, all from a European soccer expert whose powerful model is up 1,800 percent in less than three years.
