Norway’s suddenly successful football squad was winning more international acclaim on Wednesday, after winning the hearts and minds of fellow Norwegians at home. Its third victory in the World Cup Tuesday night keeps Norway in the game, at least until the next match against powerhouse Brazil.
After celebrating their 2-1 win over the Ivory Coast in Dallas, Norwegian superstar Erling Braut Haaland seemed to be trying to dampen expectations for the team’s match against Brazil in New Jersey on Sunday. When asked to describe Norway’s chances of beating Brazil, Haaland told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) “very small … because Brazil is the big favourite.”
Several of his teammates said much the same, with Alexander Sørloth calling the Norwegians “massive underdogs.” Others think Haaland was bluffing and Sørloth himself said he still expected “a really fun match. We’ve been the favorites in three of four World Cup matches now (winning against Iraq, Senegal and Ivory Coast, but losing to France) so it will be good to be the underdogs. We’ll fight from below.”
Fully 58 percent of optimistic Norwegian fans think Norway can win, while 42 percent of 35,000 Norwegians responding to an NRK poll on Wednesday think Brazil will “unfortunately be too strong” for Norway. While Brazil has a long track record of World Cup victories, Norway hadn’t even qualified for 28 years and has never advanced as far as it has now. That makes players and fans alike happy to have come this far.
Haaland, meanwhile, gave teammate Patrick Berg of Bodø Glimt a kiss after Berg passed the ball to him so he could score Norway’s second goal of the game. The first goal was landed by Antonio Nusa, who plays professionally for Leipzig and was ecstatic and overcome by emotion after Norway won. He thinks it will be “incredibly fun” to meet Brazil on Sunday, when the match starts at 10pm Norwegian time on NRK.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
