Since 15 June 2021, Norway has played 13 international matches. The highest ranked team Norway has faced is Denmark, which is ranked number 15 in the world. Norway is ranked number 11, and has not met a single opponent who is better than him in almost a year. – I think it has given a false sense of security. Most matches in the qualifiers give us nothing, says news’s football expert Carl-Erik Torp about Norway’s run-up to the championship. FALSE SECURITY: news’s expert Carl-Erik Torp did not know how Norway fared before the match against England. Photo: n24593 Weak against good resistance Before the humiliation against England, Torp was clear that it was impossible to know where Norway stood, because they have not met good resistance since June last year. Then Norway lost 7-0 against the Netherlands, 1-0 against Sweden and 3-1 against Germany – We have long struggled against the good nations. We were far behind both the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany last year. It has been a long time since we have had a good experience against good opposition, says Torp. He is supported by sports commentator on TV 2, Mina Finstad Berg. – If you want to compete against the best, it requires something completely different than when you meet teams you dominate against, and you can not recreate that in the training field, says Berg. – The European Championships are tough During the last year, Norway has played eight qualifying matches against weak opposition, and five training matches. Three of them were in the Algarve Cup, where Norway met Italy and Portugal. – That is always the challenge with the qualifiers, you meet much, much tougher opposition in the European Championships. On the women’s side, it is tough in the European Championships, president of the Norwegian Football Association, Lise Klaveness to news before the meeting with England. – We have the qualifying matches we have. We can not do much with them, then we meet the opponents we have, says national team manager Martin Sjögren. TV2 expert: Mina Finstad Berg. Photo: Julia Marie Naglestad / TV 2 Since you can not do anything with who you meet in the qualifying matches, the experts believe that the national team management should work harder to find tougher opponents in the training matches. – The 8-0 loss should have come in the run-up. Had Norway met tougher opposition and got a nose thief before the championship, we could have adjusted to the championship, says Torp. Berg points out that the defense was very insecure before the championship. – I would have liked to have seen that the defensive line got to test themselves against proper resistance. Blakstad is a very good player, but not an experienced defender. We knew that. Tuva Hansen is a good defender, but she is a midfielder and not a right back. We knew that Maren Mjelde has been out for a long time. In retrospect, I wish the defense was challenged even more before the championship, says Berg Try the recipe from 2019 Norway met New Zealand and Denmark in the last weeks before the championship. WANTS Tougher RESISTANCE: National team manager Martin Sjögren makes no secret of the fact that he would have liked to have played more matches against better opposition. Photo: VEGARD GRØTT / BILDBYRÅN – We made the decision to meet New Zealand and Denmark in the preparations because they were quite similar to the opponents we had towards the World Cup in 2019, says the national team manager. Sjögren also wants to play more matches against better teams, and points out that there is talk of changes in the qualification for the championships. – I think everyone is aware that we need to play against even better opposition more often, and there is a discussion now with the qualifying system to get more matches against better ranked nations.
ttn-69
– It has given a false sense of security – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule
