JOHANN Berg Gudmundsson is hoping Iceland can take advantage of any defensive frailties in the Argentina squad today.

Iceland play their first ever World Cup match against Lionel Messi and co in Moscow this afternoon (1pm), and they've been handed a tough opening assignment.

But while Argentina's squad might be stocked with attacking talents, they aren't so well equipped defensively and Burnley winger Gudmundsson will seek to take advantage of that.

Iceland can also take confidence from their opening game of Euro 2016 when Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal were thwarted in a 1-1 draw.

"Before the groups were announced I said that I wanted either Brazil or Argentina so I got one of them," Gudmundsson said of the draw.

"In the first game of the Euros we played Ronaldo and we kept him relatively quiet. This time it's Messi so hopefully we can do the same against him.

"We'll probably have to have a few players running after him the whole game. We know that we're probably going to be defending for a lot of the time and he is obviously one of the best players in the world. He can really turn it on. We've just got to defend well and see where it takes us. When we see the ball we've got to try and score the goal.

"Attacking wise they are probably one of the best teams in the tournament.

"I wouldn't say they have issues in defence but they have a few players who aren't playing at the highest level, like the attacking players are. Hopefully that's something we can use to our advantage. We know they are a great side and first of all we have to keep them quiet."

Iceland's draw is certainly a difficult one, with regular foes Croatia also in their group, alongside Nigeria.

"When I saw that I was like 'no, not again'," Gudmundsson said of Croatia, who Iceland have faced four times in recent years.

"We beat them last time so that gave us a massive confidence boost. We obviously won the group as well so that gives us a lot of belief.

"We've got Nigeria in there as well and they were probably the strongest team from that pot four. It's a tough group but the World Cup was always going to be tough."