Kolkata: Two comments sum up Norway’s first successful World Cup qualifying campaign of the century. Only one of them is from football.
“The game was a birthday gift for my 10-year-old son. He was happy to watch Italy, though he was more thrilled to see (Erling) Haaland,” 57-year-old Italian journalist Andrea Saronni was quoted as saying by Reuters after Norway came back to beat Italy 4-1 in Milan on Sunday.
The second came from Kagiso Rabada. “Everybody chipped in…We find ways to win matches…. We believe that any player can do the job for us,” said the South Africa pace ace. Ruled out of the first Test against India at Eden Gardens with a rib injury, Rabada was the first to rush on to the ground after Sunday’s 30-run win.
With a record-equalling 16 goals in the qualifying campaign, five of them in the 11-1 win against Moldova and a hattrick in a 5-0 victory against Israel, Haaland has headlined this qualifying campaign. The next best is eight goals.
Including two at San Siro against the four-time world champions, Haaland, 25, has scored in all eight matches of the qualifiers. He has 55 goals in 48 matches for Norway and is only the sixth in the history of the men’s game to score 50 goals in fewer than 50 matches. In the last 25 years only one player, Robert Lewandowski, has scored 16 goals in a World Cup qualifying cycle in Europe. The Pole star did it on the way to the 2018 finals but had needed 10 matches.
“He (Haaland) takes a lot of responsibility up front. They have to put at least two defenders on him which makes room for me and (Antonio) Nusa and (Oscar) Bobb,” Alexander Sorloth said after the win against Israel last month.
Which is where this young Norway side are similar to the Proteas. The most assists, seven, have also come from a Norwegian. Martin Odegaard was seen celebrating Norway’s 1-0 win against Estonia last week. A knee injury has meant the Arsenal captain’s last international was in September.
Norway had a goal difference of +32. They had four clean sheets and conceded more than one goal only once. The back four against Italy had two from Premier League, one from Serie A and Julian Ryerson is a right-back who played the 2024 Champions League final. Left-back David Wolfe has signed a five-year deal with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Kristoffer Ajer, the anchor in central defence, is with Brentford.
The team that lined up against Italy, whom Norway beat twice, had only one player, defensive midfielder Patrick Berg, from the domestic league but, including substitutes, five from the Premier League. The twinkle-toed Nusa (RB Leipzig) and Borussia Dortmund’s Ryerson represented Bundesliga. Torbjorn Heggem (central defender) is with Bologna, Leo Ostigard (central defender) and Morten Thorsby (defensive midfielder) are with Genoa and along with Sassuolo’s Kristian Thorstvedt (wide right) completed those from Serie A used by coach Stale Solbakken. Sorloth got the most goals for Atletico Madrid last term and with Sevilla’s goalie Orjan Nyland were from La Liga.
Having played in France under the mathematics loving coach Egil Olsen, Solbakken is Norway’s strongest connection between 1998 and now, (Sorloth and Haaland’s fathers Goran and Alf-Inge played in the 1994 finals). Solbakken’s Norway usually adopt a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3-formation and, as ESPN showed, had the most take-ons, one-on-ones and progressive runs before Sunday.
After 12 successive disappointing qualifying campaigns, including European championships, Norway will be in the finals of a major for the first time since the 2000 Euros. Israel coach Ran Ben-Shimon said along with Spain, they were the best teams in Europe.
