Norway U21, Football | Playoffs, here we come!
The comments expresses the writer’s opinions.
Norway – Azerbaijan 2-1
THE FIRST the weeks in june have been magical for norwegian national team football on the men’s side. Now anything is possible. EM is the two letters we reach for, and it’s about 2023.
The A-team will go to group games where the best nations go straight to Germany in 2024.
After Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over Azerbaijan, the U21 team is ready for the European Championship finals in Georgia and Romania next summer.
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DOWNLOADS HAVE FOR habit of keeping up with new downturns. As is well known, an accident rarely occurs alone. When something is wrong, it tends to spread in the system.
Roughly speaking, this has been the situation for Norwegian national team football on the men’s side until recently, it has been very thin.
When the playoffs are the defined goal, the conclusion can not offend anyone.
Also read: Hooray for the progress and different
NORWAY MEN A has not been in the playoffs since the year 2000. Norway men U21 played the European Championships in Israel in 2013. That said, we of course remember the U20 European Championships in Poland in the summer of 2019, when Erling Braut Haaland scored in one and the same match (Honduras 12 ) -0).
Then we did not quite understand what was going on.
Now we know.
MortenP
Morten Pedersen is from Vålerenga, Oslo east. Worked freelance in Arbeiderbladet during school hours. To Dagbladet in 1986. Two periods as a correspondent for Dagbladet in London. The online newspaper from 2021. Editor and publisher of the football magazine – 4-4-3 Gatelagmagasinet.
DURING one and a half years with Ståle Solbakken, Norwegian football’s flagship has become a team to be reckoned with. In June alone, we have won three matches against teams ahead of us in the FIFA rankings. The last time we beat a better opponent was under Per-Mathias Høgmo back in 2015, when Croatia was beaten 2-0 at Ullevaal.
The aftermath of that was 14 games in hell (4-1-9), and a fall to 83rd place in the FIFA rankings.
The next time the international federation upgrades its lists, Norway will be well into its 30s.
Read also: VIF-Jonsson with harsh criticism of NFF: – A huge problem in Norwegian football
SUCCESS IS NOT COMING by itself, but tends to spread. That’s where we are now. The results come as a consequence of a lot of good work in the national team school and the age-specific year groups.
It has not been hopeless although it has been disappointing at the top.
Behind the many declines in results, Norwegian football has worked well.
Read also: He will score a hundred goals for Norway
PROCESSES OFTEN NEED a catalyst, a person or an event that makes the ball roll. At Ullevaal Stadium, Ståle Solbakken is this catalyst. A lot has happened since he returned to the country in December 2020.
The tone is different, it has to do with demeanor and approach.
Norwegian football was not abandoned, but the work had to be refined in a new and better way.
Here you can read more comments by MortenP
19 OF THE PLAYERS from the U21 team’s European Championship squad in Israel in 2013 has A-international matches for Norway. There is something to think about for those who celebrated the European Championship ticket at Marienlyst in Drammen last night. There you have the carrot far beyond the playoffs.
The most prominent are Joshua King (62), Markus Henriksen (58), Stefan Johansen (56), Håvard Nordtveit (52), Omar Elabdellaoui (49), Ørjan Nyland (38), Martin Linnes (29), Stefan Strandberg (27 ). ), Jo Inge Berget (20), Valon Berisha (20 – now Kosovo) and Magnus Wolff Eikrem (17).
Three of them – Nyland, Strandberg and King – were involved in Norway’s A-team last week.
A fourth, Omar Elabdellaoui, is on his way back and sat in the stands against Sweden at Ullevaal.
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DURING in the last two weeks, Norway A has beaten Serbia 1-0, Sweden 2-1 and 3-2 and played 0-0 against Slovenia. The U21 team has beaten Croatia 3-2, Finland 2-0 and Azerbaijan 2-1. It is incomparable and most likely without comparison in Norwegian football history.
And the best way to describe it is with letters and an exclamation mark.
Turning point!