Norway’s men’s national football team was kicking itself after letting a 2-0 advantage disappear into a 2-2 tie against Romania on home turf at Ullevaal Stadiun in Oslo heading into the weekend. They thus lost a valuable chance in the latest round of qualifiers for the European Championships.
“We haven’t learned,” upset player Joshua King told state broadcaster NRK. “I feel sorry for Perry and Lars (the team’s coaches), who have given us the correct instructions, which we didn’t manage to follow.”
Head coach Lars Lagerbäck could only agree: “They were playing without using their heads.” His team, which featured the star player Martin Ødegaaard, had dominated all evening and led 2-0 with 14 minutes left on the clock, only to collapse at the end and allow two goals by Romania.
Other players also regretted that they’d disappointed their coaches and their fans. “I don’t know what I should say any longer, it’s seldom I feel so low,” Ødegaard, who’d scored his first goal for the national team, told TV2. “I think we’d played a good match, and then the same thing happened (as it did against Sweden).”
The team had to quickly regroup, pick themselfes up again and head for the Færø Islands for the next qualifier on Monday.
newsinenglish.no staff
