– Notice that one was infected
ULLEVAAL (Dagbladet): Wild and erratic. But first and foremost a fantastic atmosphere at the football matches.
Norway faces a big task in the World Cup qualifiers in Istanbul on Friday night. For Solbakken’s part, he returns to the city, which could start on the nightmare-like corona pandemic.
On March 12, 2020, he was the coach of FC Copenhagen. Then the team met Istanbul Basaksehir in the quarterfinals of the Europa League.
The world was about to shut down. The greatest pessimists feared that humanity was heading for the abyss. But the match in Istanbul went for spectators. At the hotel, Solbakken and co. received reassuring signals.
The 53-year-old tells Dagbladet:
– We were told that there was only one person in the whole of Turkey who had corona. It was somewhat questionable, perhaps, for the next day the country shut down. But that was the message we got. So then we conducted matches.
FC Copenhagen lost 1-0, but won 3-1 overall. Thus, they advanced to the quarterfinals of Manchester United. Then it was stop.
Now it’s about the national team. With the victory, Norway will put itself in a favorable position. The group winner goes straight to the Qatar World Cup next year. Make number to must via playoff.
Germany warns
The Turks want a 12th man in the back with their fanatical home crowd.
– They have extreme supporters. But it can be both good and bad, midfielder Stefan Strandberg points out.
– If we get off to a good start, they can quickly turn their backs on their own team.
Turkey coached by Stefan Kuntz, who took over for Senol Günes. Solbakken believes he has good control of the German.
-As a coach, Kuntz has varied between formations 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3. We have a good history of what he did with the Olympic national team to Germany recently, says Solbakken.
– We are pretty sure that they will come with one of the two formations. This is indicated by the withdrawal of the squad.
The match was played at Fenerbahce’s home ground, Sükrü Saracoğlu Stadion. The capacity is about 50,000 spectators. Against Norway, only about half of the space fills up.
Cause: Local corona restrictions.
From having only one case of infection (!), The official Turkish corona numbers are now these:
7.3 million people have been infected with corona. I over 65,000 have lost their lives.
In that sense, the backdrop is tragic.
WC QUALITY
The Netherlands | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 22 | – | 6 | 13 |
Norway | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 12 | – | 5 | 13 |
Turkey | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 16 | – | 13 | 11 |
Montenegro | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | – | 9 | 8 |
Latvia | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | – | 10 | 5 |
Gibraltar | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | – | 25 | 0 |