Iceland v Kazakhstan background

Iceland may need only to avoid defeat in their first home game against Kazakhstan to be sure of reaching their first major final tournament, and they could be celebrating before kick-off if Turkey and the Netherlands draw in the earlier Group A game.

• Dmitriy Shomko is suspended after accumulating three bookings. The following players are a yellow card away from a ban: Kolbeinn Sigthórsson, Ari Skulason (Iceland), Renat Abdulin and Azat Nurgaliyev (Kazakhstan).

Previous meetings
• Eidur Gudjohnsen scored once and Birkir Bjarnason twice as Iceland beat Kazakhstan 3-0 in Astana in Group A in March, in what was the nations' first senior encounter.

• Iceland and Kazakhstan have met in three UEFA age-group competition games, with Iceland recording two wins to Kazakhstan's one. Most recently, the sides were paired in qualifying for this summer's UEFA European Under-21 Championship; Iceland won 2-0 at home but lost 3-2 in the return match in Astana.

Form guide
• Iceland are unbeaten in six competitive home games (W5 D1) since a 4-2 loss to Slovenia in June 2013.

• Kazakhstan are without a win in their last 14 competitive away games (D1 L13), but have scored in their last six qualifiers on the road, taking the lead in the Netherlands (3-1) and the Czech Republic (2-1) in this campaign.

Trivia and links
• The journey from the Kazakh capital, Almaty, to Reykjavik is over 6,000km.

• Iceland's Gylfi Sigurdsson turns 26 two days after the Kazakhstan match.

• The two countries' clubs have met in four UEFA club competition fixtures, with Kazakh teams posting three wins to their Icelandic counterparts' one.