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Croatia defeat Iceland in World Cup final group stage match to face Denmark in Round of 16

The game was played on Tuesday night in Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don in front of a crowd of 43,472
Iceland's Emil Hallfredsson (L) and Croatia's Milan Badelj fight for the ball in their 2018 FIFA World Cup Group D football match at Rostov Arena.  Valery Matytsin/TASS
Iceland's Emil Hallfredsson (L) and Croatia's Milan Badelj fight for the ball in their 2018 FIFA World Cup Group D football match at Rostov Arena.
© Valery Matytsin/TASS

ROSTOV-ON-DON, June 26. /TASS/. Croatia defeated Iceland 2-1 in the IFA World Cup final group stage match to win the first place in Group D and make it into the Round of 16 stage.

The game was played on Tuesday night in Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don in front of a crowd of 43,472.

The opening goal was scored by Croatia’s midfielder Milan Badelj on the 53rd minute. Iceland’s midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson equalized on the 75th minute. Croatia’s Ivan Perisic scored the winning goal on the 90th minute.

Already cleared for the playoffs, Croatia earned nine points in three games to top Group D. They will face Denmark, number two in Group C, in a Round of 16 match in Nizhny Novgorod on July 1.

Iceland, occupying the fourth position in Group D with one point, have failed to make it into playoffs.

Russia is holding its first-ever edition of the FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Moscow with a spectacular opening show at the Luzhniki Stadium on the night of June 14.

Thirty-two national football teams were divided into eight groups, with four in each, and the top two from their relevant groups will proceed to the next round, known as the playoffs or the knockout stage, to keep vying for the much-coveted FIFA World Cup Trophy.

Eleven host cities, namely Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara, were selected to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup.