Norway was hoping for three things on Tuesday evening: Group win, playoff place and better seeding level for the upcoming EC qualification draw. Fasit was zero out of three. Rather, Norway suffered a fully deserved 0-2 loss and had to realize that it was another gloomy evening for the Norwegian football public. – That is the heaviest thing for me After the match, a composed, but very disappointed, Norwegian national team manager met the press. – Of course it is heavy. But we were painfully aware that this could be the outcome, says Ståle Solbakken when asked by news what it was like to see all the points mentioned above go down the drain. And adds: – The heaviest thing for me is not losing promotion, but that we don’t end up in the second seeding bowl. Because there is probably a difference of essence when it comes to reaching a playoff. We could potentially have two cannon teams in front of us, is Solbakken’s horror scenario. Knowing that only two teams from the group go to the EC. If Norway gets a nightmare draw, suddenly Solbakken’s goal of European Championship 2024 looks much more difficult. Here you can read more about all the seeding levels and which teams Norway can get when the groups are drawn in Frankfurt on 9 October: – A hard blow Norway has, as you know, not been in a major championship since 2000. Ståle Solbakken is fully aware of that Tuesday was part of a long series of Norwegian disappointments in decisive matches. – It’s because we haven’t been skilled enough for a long, long time. Now we were the third seed in this thing here, and we have beaten Sweden twice and Serbia once, so we feel we have something going on and are better, says the Norway boss. – What does this do to the project you are trying to get into the group? – It’s tough, but it’s not like, when we enter this group, we don’t realize we can be both number 1 or 4. It would have been a bit of a sensation beforehand if we were to win this group, but now we had we a match ball at home. We failed, and it is of course a hard blow, admits Solbakken. The Norwegian players ranted from journalist to journalist in the press zone after the game on Tuesday evening. The end of the National League was a lost opportunity. – There is nothing to hide: It is a blow in the face. It is tough to get this now after we had a very good collection in June. It is tough to swallow, says Andreas Hanche-Olsen to news. – Completely possible The centre-back adds that the team has to do just that: Get over the disappointment and fight back. He strongly believes that Norway will play in the EC in 2024. – I see it as entirely possible now. If we manage to use this as good experience, then I really believe that we will be able to get to the championship soon, says Hanche-Olsen. He is supported by Alexander Sørloth. – We have a very new team with new players. We’ve had a bit of a “rebuild”, I think, if you look at the average age. We have a lot, a lot to go on, and we will get better in the future, says the trønder. Ståle Solbakken has not lost faith that Norway will make it to the European Championships in 2024. He keeps saying that he “guarantees” it, but swallows the word and formulates himself a bit more soberly. – I have a very strong conviction that we will come to Germany, says the Norway manager. – What are you missing as of today? – In some phases of the game, we are not skilled enough. Sometimes with the ball, when should we take it easy and when should we go fast, and we must be able to maintain good organization throughout the match. But for the first time since 2014, we have beaten teams seeded ahead of us. We did that against Serbia and twice against Sweden. So it’s not like we can’t do this in an EC qualifier either, but the seeding group will be tougher than it could have been with a draw here, Solbakken realizes. On October 9, we get the group stage. There are now two practice matches against Ireland and Finland in November before the national team year 2022 is over.
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