Erling Braut Haaland, National team | Knute the Norway dream. Calling out the Serbs’ Halaand plan
– It is very difficult, smiles Serbia and La Liga star Stefan Mitrović to Nettavisen when asked what it is like to meet Erling Braut Haaland.
He kept both Jærbuen and Norway from life in the Nations League final at the Ullevaal stadium.
The Getafe star is preparing these days for a meeting with Karim Benzema and the rest of Real Madrid’s star gallery on Saturday, but to call time for an exclusive interview with Nettavisen after extinguishing Ståle Solbakken and Norway’s hopes of victory in the Nations League.
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The 32-year-old played the entire match in central defense for Serbia, and was a strong contributor to Haaland and Norway creating very little in the decisive group stage match, which ended with 2-0 for assessment from Belgrade.
Went straight to Haaland after the match
None of the Serbian players stopped being pressured after the victory at the end of September, but now Mitrović touches on what kind of plan they had laid to stop Norway in general, but Haaland in particular.
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– We knew what was important to us, and that was to close the space for Martin Ødegaard, who has the technical qualities to give the ball to Haaland. Our main goal was to be far away from our goal, because when Haaland is far from the goal he is the least dangerous, says the Getafe player.
Haaland has driven countless centre-backs almost to madness in recent months, but Mitrović says that he never managed to exchange any words with the Norwegian during the match.
– He has a bit of a «cold face» like me, smiles the centre-back, who nevertheless reveals that both he and teammate Aleksandar Mitrović went straight to Haaland after the match was over.
– I asked about his suit. He will be at the top of the football sky for a long time, so I am happy to have the kit, says the veteran.
Brings out the speed
He, like the rest of Football Europe, is deeply impressed by Norway’s biggest football star, and makes no secret of the fact that it is, to say the least, challenging to meet him as a centre-back.
– But for me the best thing is to play against players like that, because it keeps me 100 percent concentrated. It is very difficult to defend against him, but we know his main strengths are speed and chasing balls in the back. We wanted to be close to him and not give him much space, says the centre-back.
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– Around the goal he is a “killer”, and you see what he does at Manchester City. He is one of the best in the world, but we got him out of his comfort zone.
Haaland scored new goals in the Champions League against FC Copenhagen, and is expected to start when the blue shirts meet Southampton on Saturday at 16:00.
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