Norway’s run-up to this summer’s football World Cup is not off to a good start. The Norwegian national men’s football team lost 2-1 to the Netherlands Friday night, the first time they’ve lost since the fall of 2024.
The exhibition match, one of three scheduled for the national team before World Cup action begins in June, played out in Amsterdam and was a sobering experience. “This is not the Norwegian team we came to know during the qualifying round,” said NRK’s football commentator Eirik Horneland. “We didn’t meet that level.” The team was also accused losing both structure and possession of the ball.
The Norwegians were without their biggest stars, with both Arsenal’s Martin Ødegaard injured and Manchester City’s Erling Braut Haaland needing some rest. Andreas Schjelderup redeemed himself by being the only Norwegian to score against the Netherlands. Otherwise a disappointed head coach Ståle Solbakken described the allowance of a header by Dutch star Virgil van Dijk as “collective weakness.”
Norway will next meet Switzerland on Tuesday and then Sweden on June 1, both of them at home in Oslo before World Cup action begins on June 16 against either Bolivia or Iraq.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
