JOHANN Berg Gudmundsson is trying to keep his focus on club affairs rather than a historic summer for Iceland.

The Clarets winger was influential in helping Iceland become the smallest country to qualify for a World Cup and they have been handed a testing draw with Argentina, Croatia and Nigeria.

While finishing the season strongly with Burnley is Gudmundsson's principal aim, he can't help but look forward to a clash with Argentina and Lionel Messi in Moscow on Saturday, June 16.

The 27-year-old watches plenty of football away from Turf Moor, but believes Messi is playing a different sport to the rest of the mere mortals given his incredible goalscoring statistics.

"I watch quite a bit of football so obviously I see him in the Spanish league and in the Champions League. The stuff he does is unheard of, it's something else," Gudmundsson said of the five-time Ballon d'Or winner.

"Him and Ronaldo are not playing the same sport as us because they just score in every game. I'm not sure how they do it.

"I've faced Ronaldo before, he's a decent player as well, and then Messi is probably just another level above him. It's going to be tough but that's the nice thing about football - you get to play against good players."

Gudmundsson will certainly be testing himself against the world's best in Russia and Iceland are continuing their preparations for the World Cup in the United States during the international break, with friendlies against Mexico and Peru.

But for now it's the Clarets that are chiefly occupying Gudmundsson's thoughts.

"I'm trying not to think about it too much," he said of the World Cup.

"I'm concentrating on finishing off the season with Burnley. I'm going in to every game with that mentality because I want to win every game.

"I don't want to think about the World Cup too much because that's something that I can think about after the season ends."

It's been a breakthrough season in the Premier League for the Icelander, who has two goals and six assists to his name and has been one of Burnley's best players this term.

The Clarets have ruffled the feathers of some of the top flight's biggest sides this season and Gudmundsson will aim to take inspiration from a campaign which has Burnley seventh with eight games to go into the World Cup.

"Even though we play against the big teams we're not scared of them," he said. "That's what we do when we're back with Iceland.

"We know we play the best football against the big teams. There are similarities with Burnley when you look at the performance against Manchester United and see how good it was. There was Spurs and Liverpool away as well; big clubs.

"They are tough teams and we'll definitely take those examples in to the World Cup."

Like the Clarets, Iceland will head into the tournament as underdogs, but that's a role that Gudmundsson has thrived on and he's confident Iceland will once again upset the odds this summer, having knocked England out of Euro 2016.

"I don't really mind it because it's nice to surprise people," Gudmundsson said of the underdog status.

"At the start of the season we (Burnley) were second or third favourites to go down. With Iceland nobody expected us to knock England out.

"There's always pressure in football but sometimes you go in to games where you're not expected to do a lot so it brings more freedom. It's nice to be the underdog and people like the underdogs."