After the 1-3 loss to Valur, Ólafur Ingi Skúlason said the energy and the performance were fine — his side just couldn't finish, and kept making the wrong choices around the opposition box. Now Breiðablik get the chance to put that right, and they get it against the worst possible opponent: the team that put four past them the last time these two met. Fram won that one 4-3 back in May, a seven-goal rollercoaster, and neither attack has switched off since.
The market
No meaningful market yet.
Breiðablik won three in a row through midsummer but have since lost two, 0-1 to Þór and 1-3 to Valur. The 2024 champions sit fourth, around eight points off the fight at the top and well clear of trouble at the bottom — this is about chasing a European place and rediscovering the finishing touch. Þorleifur Úlfarsson, a new arrival, played his first minutes since December in the Valur game. No confirmed absences turned up in the reporting, but the squad needs re-checking closer to kickoff.
Fram are in another gear going forward. They've scored fourteen goals in their last six league games and sit near the top, but they leak too — four conceded to KR last time out and five to Víkingur earlier in the summer. According to reports, the build-up to matchday 18 was chaos for Fram: Rúnar Kristinsson was shown a red card for throwing a water bottle at a wall against ÍBV and served a touchline ban, and three players were suspended. Most of that should be behind them by 24 August, though the injuries to Simon Tibbling and Kyle McLagan need watching as the game nears.
LAST 6 MATCHES
The key question is a simple one: can Breiðablik turn territory into goals against a team that scores freely but leaves gaps? Kristófer Ingi Kristinsson is the hosts' top scorer with nine league goals, and he needs to be in the right place when the chances come — because the problem, if you take the coach at his word, has been the finishing, not the creating.
Fram's threat comes from an unexpected source. Kennie Chopart has scored seven league goals from defence, most of them off set pieces, and with Atli Jónasson and Freyr Sigurðsson alongside him, Fram have plenty of players who can finish. That puts the onus on Breiðablik's set-piece marking and their concentration in the box — the very area where they've been up and down.
If Breiðablik win the dead balls and keep Chopart off the end of them, it's realistic they control the game. But if Fram manage to blow it open, the way they did in May, that plays straight into the hands of the more attack-minded side.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
THE PICK
Fram bring the sharper attack, more confidence and a side fighting for the title, while Breiðablik are still hunting the finishing their coach keeps asking for. Both teams have shipped goals in bunches lately, and their only meeting this summer finished 4-3 — everything points to goals, and to both sides scoring.
The risk comes in two forms. Home advantage and a two-match losing run can work as a jolt for Breiðablik, and if they finally find the range against this loose Fram back line, a home win is every bit as plausible. And Fram's team news is still unconfirmed two weeks out — if the absences among their attacking players drag on, that changes the picture.
This is a capital-area derby with two well-known managers on the touchlines: Ólafur Ingi Skúlason at Breiðablik and Rúnar Kristinsson at Fram. The 2024 champions, mid-table and short of goals, host a side pushing at the top — and one that remembers that 4-3 win in the spring. Kickoff is 19:15 on the Monday evening, with coverage expected on Stöð 2 Sport, though the channel is still to be confirmed.