UPDATED: Norway’s national men’s football team will be up against either Bolivia, Iraq or Surinam at its first World Cup match next summer, depending upon the results of spring playoffs. The two other members of Norway’s Group I, however, are France and Senegal, and even top Norwegian player Erling Braut Haaland has some qualms.
“France and Senegal, that’s tough,” Haaland wrote on social media after Friday’s draw that set up all the groups was completed. Head coach Ståle Solbakken also said his “first impression is that it’s a tough group. We don’t know which (fourth) team it will be, but if it’s Bolivia, it’s a tough group.”
Many other Norwegians, including the president of Norway’s football federation Lise Klaveness, had actually hoped for Group I, though. That’s because its initial matches at the World Cup will all be held around North America’s East Coast, making them relatively closer to Norway. “We want to gather as many Norwegians as possible (at the matches) and Group I had the best prospects for that,” Klaveness told state broadcaster NRK. She’s played in the World Cup herself and remembers, though, that it can be very hot and humid in the New York area in June and July.
Norway’s first match at the World Cup, for which it qualified for the first time in nearly three decades, will be held on June 16 in Boston starting at midnight Norwegian time, followed by its match against Senegal in New York at 2am on June 23. On June 26 Norway will face France in Boston, with kickoff at 9pm in Norway (3pm Boston time)
NewsinEnglish.no staff
