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5 July 2026  3 min read

Great Britain 86-88 Iceland: World Cup qualification over after loss in Manchester

The second round of World Cup Qualification was on the line, with GB needing to win to progress, but it wasn’t to be after a resurgent Iceland came back from eight down to take the victory and third place in Group D – the top three teams in each group advance to the Second Round of the European Qualifiers where they will join three teams from another group.

Capacity crowd in Manchester

The game started with both teams flying out of the blocks, trading buckets and turnovers in the opening quarter.

Daylight was created by the boys in white through a momentum-starting triple from Flynn Boardman-Raffet, followed by an emphatic Joshua Uduje dunk off an Iceland turnover – which sent the Manchester capacity crowd wild – a Jubrile Belo block, and then a subsequent two from Boardman-Raffet put them up five.

The quarter rounded up with Belo finding himself in the right place at the right time to knock down a buzzer beater three to put GB up 24-19.

The second saw GB push the lead to 10 through a Luke Nelson up and under, before Iceland’s Thorir Thorbjarnarson and Elvar Fridriksson combined for four to bring the score back within six (38-32).

GB’s action for the second frame finished with two free-throws from Uduje, before Martin Hermannsson blasted his way through the GB paint to find a wide open Kristinn Palsson who splashed the corner three. GB finished ahead 49-41.

Turnovers helped Iceland creep back in

With the half in their favour, Q3 saw GB try to build on their eight-point lead, but a slightly ragged and out of sorts spell, including seven turnovers, helped Iceland creep back in.

A big three from Almar Orri Atlason brought the visitors within three and Marc Steutel called a time-out to reset his team.

The final three minutes saw GB back on the front-foot stretching the game to eight again in their favour (69-61).

Iceland’s Kristinn Palsson banged in a three to start Q4, signalling the Viking come back was on. A four-point play from Elvar Fridriksson shortly followed, after a permitter foul by Amin Adamu, bringing them within one.

Nelson clapped back with his own three and subsequent lay-up to push the score back to four (80-76), but Iceland were able to game manage, getting to the line and putting away the shots when they mattered.

Uduje top-scored for GB with 23 points, followed by Nelson (14) and Raffet (11).

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