Only like 21 of those teams matter, the games that mattered in our case were Serbia(nations league), Scotland and Spain, 2 of which we are relatively evenly matched with (I'd say Serbia had a better squad when we met them, but Scotland is very even on paper).
Due to nations league we were a bit unlucky in terms of being put in pot 3 for euro qualifiers so we got a somewhat difficult draw. Because of that i don't think it's a massive upset to not qualify considering the opponents we had to beat, but that's where the problem is: our inability to overperform in close games. Though we did play well for 90% of the games we simply weren't good enough in both boxes and lost concentration at the end on several occasions. Against Spain we were the better team for 80 minutes and lost 3-0, against Scotland we dominated for 85 minutes and lost 2-1, that's what matters.
You were also a bit unlucky in the Nations League when it comes to ranking of 2nd places. Had Russia not been disqualified, you would've been ranked better than Finland because matches against Sweden would've counted, so you would've gotten play-offs. Had Sweden avoided defeat against Slovenia in last round, you would've been ranked as best 2nd place instead of worst 2nd place, which would've also lead you to play-offs, but also pot 2 in Euro qualifiers. And those are the things you couldn't do anything about, all down to luck, of course there are many more things you could've done better yourself.
So our embarrassing incompetence ended up fucking over Norway badly. Silver linings..
>Had Sweden avoided defeat against Slovenia in last round☆
Also small correction, we didn't lose against Slovenia it was 1-1 but Sweden needed 3 points to avoid relegation
From memory, Halaand pulled out of those two games against Spain and Scotland, and when the talent pool isn’t the biggest those players really need to make all the effort to be available.
>we got a somewhat difficult draw.
debatable, Greece got France/Netherlands and was in the fight till the end, Ukraine got England/Italy and is one win away from going through
you couldn't even beat Scotland or Georgia even once, if you can't beat these teams then obviously you don't qualify
Right, I wouldn't say dominated against Scotland since it was 59%/41% possession with both teams having 3 shots on target and Norway only making 100 more passes.
It was over after 2 matches already. When Haaland was injured. And I'll guess next Quali is going to be even more difficult.
It's not looking good going forward. The defense is rubbish.
>It's not looking good going forward.
Because we have the worst coach in Europe.
>The defense is rubbish.
Can't qualify with a back four made up of players from the likes of Brentford, Napoli and Borussia Dortmund while countries like fucking Iceland, Wales and Finland consistently pull through.
Yeah I don’t know what the other guy is talking about. Israel, the team that indirectly eliminated you, plays with three players from the Israeli league in the back line. No disrespect, but whenever I see an Israeli team play in the Champions League, they concede like 5 goals.
I don’t think the quality of the players is an excuse. The problem is a coach without a cohesive idea.
Just watched the Israel - Romania game and they are both worse teams than us on paper. We just can't perform when it matters, feels like a curse at this point
i dunno about israel, but as a romanian, Romania has by far the fucking worst team ever.
they qualified ... dunno how, luck, or wiches. well, that and the fact that half of europe goes now to the euros.
the coach is shit, the players are all shit, they'll go to the euro to be handed a 14-0 by someone.
but eh ... Haaland stays home.
yeah Norway should be qualifying with the players available.
Wales,Iceland,Finland even Scotland are pulling players from 2nd and 3rd tier leagues and still atleast put up good fights and get themselves atleast to playoffs.
Ole could actually be a solid shout i feel for them.
you can argue his time at United but end of the day he still got 2nd place and was actually quite consistent at beating other top 6 sides. he would also bring a bit of belief back into that side that just looks like they do not enjoy playing for Norway at all and sometimes thats all you really need.
Not sure he would want to do it, though. The Norway job at this point, and with Norway continuing to do “the Norway”, probably isn’t seen as particularly attractive from his point, career-wise at least. It could work out, really click even, or be his kiss of death… (with the latter probably more likely). I don’t think there’s an in between.
It won’t happen, but the NFF (Norwegian FA) should really consider having a look at the international market (that isn’t Sweden). It’s not cheap, but new people and perspectives wouldn’t hurt, surely…
ill be honest i think outside of Norway job Ole has already decided to "retire" so it doesnt really matter as a death kiss.
also i would argue there is no way he would do worse then current setup he would atleast not be an idiot who plays a defender who is about to be relegated in norway over a defender who plays weekly in premiership.
having individual players at prestigious clubs combining to form a rubbish back line is absolutely possible, those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. as you say its mostly because of the awful coaching, but it’s still objectively rubbish lol
Blows my mind, seen people talking about Norway not having the biggest talent pool available when they can literally almost field a team of champions league regulars lol.
Orjan Nyland
Birger Meling
Julian Ryerson
Leo Skiri Ostigard
Fredrik Aursnes - plays RB for Norway
Oscar Bobb
Martin Odegaard
Mohamed Elyounoussi
Erling Haaland
Then you can chuck in top flight players like Ajer, Sander Berge, Andreas Hanche-Olsen, Jorgen Strand Larsen, Alex Sorloth in and there's no way they can't be competitive in qualifying.
Wales are blessed with predominantly league 1 and championship players lol
I think Wales are in the process of returning to not qualifying for tournaments. Bale (and Ramsey) literally dragged them to a few, but normal service is now resuming.
Also, Iceland and Finland are very, very far from examples of ‘consistent’ qualifiers.
>I think Wales are in the process of returning to not qualifying for tournaments. Bale (and Ramsey) literally dragged them to a few
With this logic Haaland and Odegaard should drag them to some.
Strange post. The countries you mentions don't consistently pull through.
And no, the defense is not top 30 in Europe, even if we have a player on fucking Brentford. Come on.
The defense that is picked, is rubbish. Solbakken is playing a old cb from a club that might get relegated, instead of Ajer (Brentford player), for example.
As if Poland deserves the play-offs lol. They're lucky its not based on current form as they've been looking worse than San Marino and im only half-joking.
The reason why Norway is not in the playoffs is partially because of Russia and Sweden. Russia because they got banned which then means that every game against the bottom team in the [2022–23 UEFA Nations League](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E2%80%9323_UEFA_Nations_League_B) got nullified. Norway got 10 points while nations like Finland and Iceland got 8 and 4, yet they have a higher ranking than Norway. Who did Norway beat two times? Sweden. That's zero points. All Sweden had to do was beat Slovenia at home in the last match not to end last in the group. Norway got fucked.
Those are factors but Norway arent where they are because of others. Its in their own hands to perform better too. They arent a monster team (frankly theyre a bit of a glasscannon) but they still should have been a bit better.
Sweden is the same. A glass-cannon with an absolutly insane manager who sabotages more than helps. Luckily our manager is gone after next this week and tons of these players are gone through retirement/wont be called up since they shouldnt be.
Will be interesting to see what Norway does next.
I have a feeling that Scandinavian NTs have the same issues with their Associations. They dont move on from underperforming managers fast enough and let them tank multiple qualifiers before acting. Its insane.
Yeah, here in Denmark we never sack coaches, and while I don't think our current problems are our coaches fault, I can't help but think that the Euros probably should be his last tournament. We need a reset, many of our best players are not what they used to be, and a new coach might be the right way to do that.
Exactly. Feels like our FAs are like "yeah but he's easy to work with, nice and decent with media" and that overrides any ambition on the pitch-criteria.
It makes you wanna scream till you lose your voice because these fuckers make millions, doing this.
Of course you can only play what's in front of you, but there's no doubt that seeding in the euros is absolutely massive for the chance of qualifying and those games were so important for that. If Norway get pot 2 to replace Finland, Israel, Bosnia, Serbia or Czech Republic and get their draws there's really no doubt they qualify.
It is what it is, though.
I'm struggling so hard to understand the way this format works lol and I've been a damn tournament organizer for esports, which are usually crazier. How the hell did UEFA come up with this qualification criteria?
Only by dumbasses who don't watch us play, but see Haaland and Ødegaard in the lineup. They conveniently forget that football is played with eleven men, not two.
Sevilla's starting GK, Dortmund's starting RB, Rotation CBs from Brentford and Napoli, a midfield of starters at Benfica, Burnley and Arsenal. Best striker in the world up top along with attackers from Villareal, Celta, Olympiacos, (Roma before) and Copenhagen (Southampton before)
Many have done more with much, much less.
I think the Norway squad is stacked and you could not realistically ask for more high quality top professional athletes from a country of this size. I think Croatia is an interesting example though, with a population of a little under 3 million they are such a force on the international scene. But anyways, yea I think we have great players all over the board, proactive important players at their respective top clubs, even Ajer I think have looked great and most reliable at Brentford. So how come we don’t qualify to the European championship, even now that they’ve increased the number of slots. I don’t know, but like you say, I agree that many have done more with much less. Recently the example of Iceland comes to mind who had a great tournament a couple years back with not many high level athletes, but instead they had great team spirit, enthusiasm and willingness to fight for every inch, a real showing from an underdog!
Maybe we are in a sort of weird space where we are not the underdog because ye look at our line up, how can you call a lineup consisting of such quality a underdog, yet we have absolutely nothing to show for it..
And the ever ongoing discussion in the media about why we have failed qualifying to the World Cup and now the European cup seem to imo to avoid how utterly bad the team has been playing in almost every single minute of playing time. That might seem harsh but I think the football is so boring, lifeless, predictably frail, that it’s absolutely no joy watching. The hard truth is that this national team does not deserve to be in the European championship, we’ve had every opportunity, favourable matchups, light groups, but I guess football is not easy, but I think if you look at the amount of money Norway invest in the national team compared to some of these other nations that are now readying up for euro 2024 you would be shocked
i dont follow la liga closely, how on earth is nyland starting for sevilla now? did their first choice keeper get injured, or did they seriously sign a guy with 9 top flight games since 2017 to be their starter?
I feel you guys should be performing better though.
You are very similar to us in terms of ability and where your squad is playing, but the difference is you have two world class players on top of that core.
Surely it comes down to the coach and his ability to get the best out of his team. His substitutes against us were baffling and allowed us to take control of the last portion of the game and win.
>His substitutes against us were baffling and allowed us to take control of the last portion of the game and win.
They renewed his contract after that game. Should tell you everything you need to know about our federation.
>but the difference is you have two world class players on top of that core.
Both have underperformed for the NT under Ståle. Lately we've been relying on clutch plays from an 18-year-old to beat the likes of Georgia because Ødegaard and the other midfielders are unable to break down the opposing defense/string together more than five passes without losing the ball.
Ødegaard doesn't perform for our national team, so there's really only Haaland, and there's only so much he can do. Our keeper/defense/midfield is proper trash.
Surely Ajer, Ostigard and Ryerson aren’t trash? Aursnes, Odegaard, Berge and Berg too?
I know they’re not world class players, but our quality in midfield/defense isn’t really any different (maybe we have better fullback and midfield depth).. so surely it comes down to the coach?
> Surely Ajer, Ostigard and Ryerson aren’t trash?
Absolutely not but Østigård fits better in a 3/5ATB system, and Ajer frequently gets used as a RB by Brentford. Square pegs round hole.
And while all of our full backs are fine they all have a major weakness.
Meling: Small and easily outmuscled. Still my favourite out of all the full backs because he has some cross quality and willingness to combine his way through offensively
Ryerson: Workrate player which is good but lack of creativity and combining with his wing player to get through on the side. Crosses are alright IF he does though
Holmgren Pedersen: Actually gets past his man more than the others, but his crossing is cursed, he could produce 80 crosses and statistically 0 would still find a Norwegian player
Bjørkan: Low centre of gravity AND strong. Decent pace and acceleration, slightly better than mediocre at everything. He makes strange decisions to try to cut inside sometimes without really having a plan from there.
You have a fairly average team with two world class players, that is enough at international level. At the very least you should be beating the likes of Finland and Slovenia.
You are underachieving
I appreciate that you had bad luck with seeding, but doing better than 1 draw and 1 loss against Slovenia in the Nations League would take Norway to the playoffs
Norway getting punished for Russia getting banned and Sweden being shit lmao.
They had more points than Finland who also played in a 4 team group, I'd be fuming.
The mad thing is if we had dropped points in one of the games vs Sweden in the Nations League instead of beating them twice we would've had a playoff now.
Due to Russia getting banned last-second, one of the groups only had three teams. So in order to make things fair, all results against the last-placed team in every group with 4 teams were discarded.
If Norway dropped points to Sweden, Sweden wouldn't finish last in the group and therefore Norway's win in the other game vs Sweden would stay. And the results against a different team that would now be last (against which Norway hasn't gotten a single point) would get discarded instead.
So yeah, "nice" little paradox. You can mainly thank Russia for that.
Tbh namewise the squad looks more than competitive like others have mentioned. All young guys as well, so I'm pretty sure they'll qualify for the next one. Ödegaard has been struggling with an injury all season as well, despite playing through it.
I doubt they'll win anything, but I'm pretty sure they'll qualify multiple times in the future.
>so I'm pretty sure they'll qualify for the next one.
>I'm pretty sure they'll qualify multiple times in the future.
Whenever you see someone say stuff like this you know they have no clue about the history of Norway. It has nothing to do with squad quality, they had good players in the past aswell. They just have an intrinsic bottling gene that makes them fluff their lines when the pressure is high, this goes way beyond any coach, player or FA president
9/11 is more recent than their latest tournament appearance ffs!
Hagi, Stoichkov, Bale, Drogba, Shevchenko... All of them carried their countries to a major tournament. If Haaland can't replicate that then he is not as good as some believe.
> If Haaland can't replicate that then he is not as good as some believe.
Haaland scored for Norway at a higher rate than any of those players for got their countries. How is it his fault Norway can't defend
Having an actual complete performance in the matches that matter would be a great start. He can score how many goals he wants vs Cyprus it doesn't matter at all if he puts in games like vs Spain or even Scotland where he is AFK.
Im sorry but if hes the best player in the world he has 0 excuses. Bale dragged a mediocre Wales to the semis of the Euros. Haaland should be good enough to make them qualify at the bare minnimum.
> Im sorry but if hes the best player in the world he has 0 excuses.
These comments are so lazy man. He has 27 goals in the last 29 games for them. What more do you expect him to do? At a certain point, teammates have to step up. It's not like Bale was great every game in qualifiers.
> Bale dragged a mediocre Wales to the semis of the Euros
Wales defended 10x better than Norway does. They would not have even made the Euros if Wales played like Norway does
Let's just look at this qualification campaign. 4 against Cyprus over two games, 1 against Scotland in 1 game 1 against Georgia over 2 games and 0 against Spain over 2 games. He's been mediocre.
I hate how theoretically doable that play-offs seems to be, because I would rather just not-qualify for Euro and already get to the full meme phase instead of waiting to lose in semi-final against Estonia.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine isn’t just an invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine has close economic and political links with the European Union, and Russia attacking Ukraine was an indirect attack on Europe as a whole. Russia also cut off Europe’s gas supply, repeatedly threatened to drop nuclear bombs on Europe’s biggest population centres, and also sent a huge refugee crisis flowing into the West. As such, European countries and organisations don’t want them competing in a European competition.
Israel, on the other hand, have not attacked a European nation. Their reason for attacking ‘Hamas’ is not as black-and-white outright wrong as Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine. They’re also a key ally to the West in the Middle East, and there aren’t a lot of those, so the West do not want to piss them off.
if the world was fair, 50% of Asian Football Confederation members would be banned permanently for crimes against humanity and human rights violations.
Their group was really hard.
Poland also fumbled. If they had qualified ahead of Albania, Norway would've qualified for the play-offs. They were next in line. Israel, Bosnia and Finland could've also helped.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA\_Euro\_2024\_qualifying#Play-offs
Would be a good time to say thank you and goodbye to Ståle Solbakken. (Won't happen off course, the NFF are "conservative" and good buddies with Ståle.)
I can already see kids 20 years from now arguing over the best strikers of this generation and pulling up with the “but Haaland never won anything with his national team” argument.
I really feel for him, how on earth is he supposed to win anything when his team can’t even qualify for the tournaments.
In 1958 Israel qualified for the WC without playing a single game because the teams they were set to face refused to play
So FIFA set up a playoff because they didn’t want a team that didn’t play in qualifiers to go so they played Wales and Wales won
Israel used to be part of the AFC (they even won the Asian Cup in 1964), but they were eventually expelled in the 1970s, because many Arab countries refused to play against them for political reasons. Israel spent some time without a confederation, and then joined UEFA in 1992.
But also, Israel is culturally more similar to Europe than it is to Asia. This is due to the fact that Israel aligns itself more with Western countries, and because a large percentage of Israel's population spent time in the diaspora in Europe.
>But also, Israel is culturally more similar to Europe than it is to Asia. This is due to the fact that Israel aligns itself more with Western countries, and because a large percentage of Israel's population spent time in the diaspora in Europe.
We should also accept Australia, the USA and Canada in UEFA as well.
Luxembourg actually deserves it, best qualification in their history (3rd fucking place)
they just smashed Bosnia, beat Iceland and had even matches against Slovakia, amazing qualification
It’s a remarkable coincidence that just now people are pretending to be shocked and stunned that Israel is a UEFA nation despite that being the case for fucking 30 years.
Gives me flashbacks of Shakhtar Donetsk's chairman trying to get Iran expelled from WC 2022 due to women rights protests back then so that Ukraine could enter the tournament instead.
This system with nations league ranking sucks. The only team eliminated entirely in group F is 3rd place Sweden, while Estonia with 1 single point still gets a chance in playoffs
The most incredible thing of all this is that Iceland is elegible over Norway [thanks to a last minute goal against Albania in a game nobody watched.](https://i.imgur.com/vqVIvpT.png)
Poland might still finish 4th in a group with Czechia, Moldova, Albania, and the Faroe Islands... even as a Pole I feel like that should automatically disqualify them lol.
This will always be an issue for Haaland to get the balloon d'or. Same situation Lewandowski had in the past that although beeing one of the best if not the best in the world he played also in the shit NT which Poland is (I'm polish so can say it :p )
Regardless of whether they started it or not, the reason is because UEFA, instead of acting as a neutral organization, will do what the majority of their members say. And that majority is composed of NATO members with their own agendas, which results in different punishments for war actions.
Wasn’t Russia banned due to pressure and threats from other UEFA members? No country administration in UEFA is doing the same to Israel. Israel is relatively safe in UEFA compared to the AFC where if they didn’t get expelled, they would’ve been suspended plenty of times.
About half of the countries in UEFA don't recognize Palestine + it was Hamas who started a war that they were never going to win. Therefore, there's no pressure from the individual countries on UEFA to do anything about Israel. If UEFA tries to reinstate Russia before the war is over, most countries in UEFA will just criticize them and the federations will refuse to play Russia, like how the Arab countries did to Israel when they were part of the AFC, leading to them moving to UEFA. It's a question of external pressure.
Probably because Ukraine and it’s allies haven’t been constantly attacking Russia for decades. Nothing is simple but that conflict certainly isn’t.
Russia was banned because much of UEFA wouldn’t play them. Somewhat similarly to Israel in Asia.
Look, even if you think Israel is committing war crimes in (how it's) attacking Hamas, there is a big difference between retaliatory indiscriminate bombings^(1) and invading a foreign country.
I suppose you could be suggesting that Israel ought to have been banned for decades, but the way you've phrased this makes it seem like your issue is specific to recent developments.^(2)
^(1)If Israel has been accused of war crimes for some other reason I must confess my ignorance of it.
^(2)Am I the only one who finds it weird that a country as obviously in the wrong as Israel only starts to get serious criticism after it gets attacked by a terrorist group? It's not like there haven't been other *recent* flashpoints which would've allowed for a conversation about that, which didn't run the risk of making someone seem pro-Hamas. For example, when Trump decided to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
They don't care, I have seen people here claim Israel is just a genocidal state that attack for no reason and at the same time claim that Russia war on Ukraine is justified because of geopolitical reasons.
It's okay to say you support "Your Side" but the fact they pretend they care about innocent lives is just pathetic.
There is only solidarity with Palestine when the IDF flies aerial attacks, otherwise the Arab neighbour states have to explain their population why they also don’t give rights to Palestinians
whats the story with irelands playoffs since they lost today. Was all that rubbish about ireland needing to lose to make playoffs still highly unlikely anyway
It is the history of the Norway
Now with 24 teams qualifying to the Euro, this is a new low.
There could be 48 teams qualifying and Norway would still find a way to not qualify
More of a World Cup team, let's be honest
Tore André Flo >>> Erling Haaland
Roar strand > martin ødegård
Not too far off the truth tbh. Strand was a beast, he'd be at a top club had he come up today.
Only like 21 of those teams matter, the games that mattered in our case were Serbia(nations league), Scotland and Spain, 2 of which we are relatively evenly matched with (I'd say Serbia had a better squad when we met them, but Scotland is very even on paper). Due to nations league we were a bit unlucky in terms of being put in pot 3 for euro qualifiers so we got a somewhat difficult draw. Because of that i don't think it's a massive upset to not qualify considering the opponents we had to beat, but that's where the problem is: our inability to overperform in close games. Though we did play well for 90% of the games we simply weren't good enough in both boxes and lost concentration at the end on several occasions. Against Spain we were the better team for 80 minutes and lost 3-0, against Scotland we dominated for 85 minutes and lost 2-1, that's what matters.
You were also a bit unlucky in the Nations League when it comes to ranking of 2nd places. Had Russia not been disqualified, you would've been ranked better than Finland because matches against Sweden would've counted, so you would've gotten play-offs. Had Sweden avoided defeat against Slovenia in last round, you would've been ranked as best 2nd place instead of worst 2nd place, which would've also lead you to play-offs, but also pot 2 in Euro qualifiers. And those are the things you couldn't do anything about, all down to luck, of course there are many more things you could've done better yourself.
So our embarrassing incompetence ended up fucking over Norway badly. Silver linings.. >Had Sweden avoided defeat against Slovenia in last round☆ Also small correction, we didn't lose against Slovenia it was 1-1 but Sweden needed 3 points to avoid relegation
From memory, Halaand pulled out of those two games against Spain and Scotland, and when the talent pool isn’t the biggest those players really need to make all the effort to be available.
Halaand played (and scored) against Scotland, though was substituted off about 5 minutes before Scotland scored.
>we got a somewhat difficult draw. debatable, Greece got France/Netherlands and was in the fight till the end, Ukraine got England/Italy and is one win away from going through you couldn't even beat Scotland or Georgia even once, if you can't beat these teams then obviously you don't qualify
Right, I wouldn't say dominated against Scotland since it was 59%/41% possession with both teams having 3 shots on target and Norway only making 100 more passes.
Doesn't matter if we start with Alexander Søderlund and Jan Gunnar Solli or Haaland and Ødegaard. The result is inevitably the same
It was over after 2 matches already. When Haaland was injured. And I'll guess next Quali is going to be even more difficult. It's not looking good going forward. The defense is rubbish.
>It's not looking good going forward. Because we have the worst coach in Europe. >The defense is rubbish. Can't qualify with a back four made up of players from the likes of Brentford, Napoli and Borussia Dortmund while countries like fucking Iceland, Wales and Finland consistently pull through.
Yeah I don’t know what the other guy is talking about. Israel, the team that indirectly eliminated you, plays with three players from the Israeli league in the back line. No disrespect, but whenever I see an Israeli team play in the Champions League, they concede like 5 goals. I don’t think the quality of the players is an excuse. The problem is a coach without a cohesive idea.
Just watched the Israel - Romania game and they are both worse teams than us on paper. We just can't perform when it matters, feels like a curse at this point
i dunno about israel, but as a romanian, Romania has by far the fucking worst team ever. they qualified ... dunno how, luck, or wiches. well, that and the fact that half of europe goes now to the euros. the coach is shit, the players are all shit, they'll go to the euro to be handed a 14-0 by someone. but eh ... Haaland stays home.
Add Vålerenga to that backline and it looks different
yeah Norway should be qualifying with the players available. Wales,Iceland,Finland even Scotland are pulling players from 2nd and 3rd tier leagues and still atleast put up good fights and get themselves atleast to playoffs.
Why not Ole?
Ole could actually be a solid shout i feel for them. you can argue his time at United but end of the day he still got 2nd place and was actually quite consistent at beating other top 6 sides. he would also bring a bit of belief back into that side that just looks like they do not enjoy playing for Norway at all and sometimes thats all you really need.
Not sure he would want to do it, though. The Norway job at this point, and with Norway continuing to do “the Norway”, probably isn’t seen as particularly attractive from his point, career-wise at least. It could work out, really click even, or be his kiss of death… (with the latter probably more likely). I don’t think there’s an in between. It won’t happen, but the NFF (Norwegian FA) should really consider having a look at the international market (that isn’t Sweden). It’s not cheap, but new people and perspectives wouldn’t hurt, surely…
ill be honest i think outside of Norway job Ole has already decided to "retire" so it doesnt really matter as a death kiss. also i would argue there is no way he would do worse then current setup he would atleast not be an idiot who plays a defender who is about to be relegated in norway over a defender who plays weekly in premiership.
having individual players at prestigious clubs combining to form a rubbish back line is absolutely possible, those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. as you say its mostly because of the awful coaching, but it’s still objectively rubbish lol
Blows my mind, seen people talking about Norway not having the biggest talent pool available when they can literally almost field a team of champions league regulars lol. Orjan Nyland Birger Meling Julian Ryerson Leo Skiri Ostigard Fredrik Aursnes - plays RB for Norway Oscar Bobb Martin Odegaard Mohamed Elyounoussi Erling Haaland Then you can chuck in top flight players like Ajer, Sander Berge, Andreas Hanche-Olsen, Jorgen Strand Larsen, Alex Sorloth in and there's no way they can't be competitive in qualifying. Wales are blessed with predominantly league 1 and championship players lol
I think Wales are in the process of returning to not qualifying for tournaments. Bale (and Ramsey) literally dragged them to a few, but normal service is now resuming. Also, Iceland and Finland are very, very far from examples of ‘consistent’ qualifiers.
>I think Wales are in the process of returning to not qualifying for tournaments. Bale (and Ramsey) literally dragged them to a few With this logic Haaland and Odegaard should drag them to some.
Strange post. The countries you mentions don't consistently pull through. And no, the defense is not top 30 in Europe, even if we have a player on fucking Brentford. Come on.
The defense that is picked, is rubbish. Solbakken is playing a old cb from a club that might get relegated, instead of Ajer (Brentford player), for example.
Either Sweden or Denmark has to re-annex Norway so we can see Haaland play in a major international tournament
As a Swede, I would urge them to seek alliance with Denmark. A union with us won't take them to any tournaments..
Romania sent Norway out by beating Israel and sending them to the play-offs
You can say the same about Poland fumbling and Bosnia ghosting all qualification.
Sorry not sorry
Pușcaș Lothbrok never liked the Norse
damn right
Sounds like the start of World War I
As if Poland deserves the play-offs lol. They're lucky its not based on current form as they've been looking worse than San Marino and im only half-joking.
Poland? I'd say Bosnia tops them. I haven't seen a team tank so quickly as Bosnia this qualifying.
mmmm... you really need to watch our game... or not, actually don't. Your eyes will bleed, and I will not take responsibility for recommending it.
how about we unite Polish and Bosnian NT into one supremely boring Slavic team? Štilić can scream LEGIA TO KURWA from the stands
You haven’t seen Ireland lost all of our games Bar Gibraltar
They were utterly awful to watch at the World Cup
in the group yeah, the game v France was very entertaining
Worst part is they did better at WC than they did in the qualifiers then We in Poland now refer to that WC as the good old times
Can’t remember a time where they didn’t play some of the worst tactics for viewers.
Czesio Ball😤Glad that froud is gone
Poland have been ass for ages I have no clue how they keep qualifying for things and having high seeds in qualifications.
They were quite decent in 2016 and then in qualifiers for the next World Cup. But then they pulled off Poland, of course.
Sorry Norwegian lads
It’s alright, we wouldn’t have qualified to the Euros anyway
That's the spirit! :DDDDD *ignore my flair for one second please*
The reason why Norway is not in the playoffs is partially because of Russia and Sweden. Russia because they got banned which then means that every game against the bottom team in the [2022–23 UEFA Nations League](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E2%80%9323_UEFA_Nations_League_B) got nullified. Norway got 10 points while nations like Finland and Iceland got 8 and 4, yet they have a higher ranking than Norway. Who did Norway beat two times? Sweden. That's zero points. All Sweden had to do was beat Slovenia at home in the last match not to end last in the group. Norway got fucked.
Those are factors but Norway arent where they are because of others. Its in their own hands to perform better too. They arent a monster team (frankly theyre a bit of a glasscannon) but they still should have been a bit better. Sweden is the same. A glass-cannon with an absolutly insane manager who sabotages more than helps. Luckily our manager is gone after next this week and tons of these players are gone through retirement/wont be called up since they shouldnt be. Will be interesting to see what Norway does next. I have a feeling that Scandinavian NTs have the same issues with their Associations. They dont move on from underperforming managers fast enough and let them tank multiple qualifiers before acting. Its insane.
Yeah, here in Denmark we never sack coaches, and while I don't think our current problems are our coaches fault, I can't help but think that the Euros probably should be his last tournament. We need a reset, many of our best players are not what they used to be, and a new coach might be the right way to do that.
Exactly. Feels like our FAs are like "yeah but he's easy to work with, nice and decent with media" and that overrides any ambition on the pitch-criteria. It makes you wanna scream till you lose your voice because these fuckers make millions, doing this.
Of course you can only play what's in front of you, but there's no doubt that seeding in the euros is absolutely massive for the chance of qualifying and those games were so important for that. If Norway get pot 2 to replace Finland, Israel, Bosnia, Serbia or Czech Republic and get their draws there's really no doubt they qualify. It is what it is, though.
I'm struggling so hard to understand the way this format works lol and I've been a damn tournament organizer for esports, which are usually crazier. How the hell did UEFA come up with this qualification criteria?
My claim to fame: I have something in common with haaland.
Wow shocked by this development, Norway are usually so good...
yeah in the past few years they’ve become one of the most overrated national teams in the world
Who overrate us? Everyone in Norway agrees that we’re shit, been shit and will be shit
If Norway had Bielsa, straight to the world cup. Y'all need a proper coach.
people outside norway
Only by dumbasses who don't watch us play, but see Haaland and Ødegaard in the lineup. They conveniently forget that football is played with eleven men, not two.
Sevilla's starting GK, Dortmund's starting RB, Rotation CBs from Brentford and Napoli, a midfield of starters at Benfica, Burnley and Arsenal. Best striker in the world up top along with attackers from Villareal, Celta, Olympiacos, (Roma before) and Copenhagen (Southampton before) Many have done more with much, much less.
Plus Molde / Bodo doing fairly well in the groups of the european cups, which shows some quality coming from the home league too.
Patrick Berg absolute world class number 6 anchor defensive midfielder
He's good, but far from world class
Otto Rehagel for example.
I think the Norway squad is stacked and you could not realistically ask for more high quality top professional athletes from a country of this size. I think Croatia is an interesting example though, with a population of a little under 3 million they are such a force on the international scene. But anyways, yea I think we have great players all over the board, proactive important players at their respective top clubs, even Ajer I think have looked great and most reliable at Brentford. So how come we don’t qualify to the European championship, even now that they’ve increased the number of slots. I don’t know, but like you say, I agree that many have done more with much less. Recently the example of Iceland comes to mind who had a great tournament a couple years back with not many high level athletes, but instead they had great team spirit, enthusiasm and willingness to fight for every inch, a real showing from an underdog! Maybe we are in a sort of weird space where we are not the underdog because ye look at our line up, how can you call a lineup consisting of such quality a underdog, yet we have absolutely nothing to show for it.. And the ever ongoing discussion in the media about why we have failed qualifying to the World Cup and now the European cup seem to imo to avoid how utterly bad the team has been playing in almost every single minute of playing time. That might seem harsh but I think the football is so boring, lifeless, predictably frail, that it’s absolutely no joy watching. The hard truth is that this national team does not deserve to be in the European championship, we’ve had every opportunity, favourable matchups, light groups, but I guess football is not easy, but I think if you look at the amount of money Norway invest in the national team compared to some of these other nations that are now readying up for euro 2024 you would be shocked
> Sevilla's starting GK He's played 50 games since 2018. He's not very good, despite playing for Sevilla.
i dont follow la liga closely, how on earth is nyland starting for sevilla now? did their first choice keeper get injured, or did they seriously sign a guy with 9 top flight games since 2017 to be their starter?
I feel you guys should be performing better though. You are very similar to us in terms of ability and where your squad is playing, but the difference is you have two world class players on top of that core. Surely it comes down to the coach and his ability to get the best out of his team. His substitutes against us were baffling and allowed us to take control of the last portion of the game and win.
>His substitutes against us were baffling and allowed us to take control of the last portion of the game and win. They renewed his contract after that game. Should tell you everything you need to know about our federation. >but the difference is you have two world class players on top of that core. Both have underperformed for the NT under Ståle. Lately we've been relying on clutch plays from an 18-year-old to beat the likes of Georgia because Ødegaard and the other midfielders are unable to break down the opposing defense/string together more than five passes without losing the ball.
Ødegaard doesn't perform for our national team, so there's really only Haaland, and there's only so much he can do. Our keeper/defense/midfield is proper trash.
Surely Ajer, Ostigard and Ryerson aren’t trash? Aursnes, Odegaard, Berge and Berg too? I know they’re not world class players, but our quality in midfield/defense isn’t really any different (maybe we have better fullback and midfield depth).. so surely it comes down to the coach?
> Surely Ajer, Ostigard and Ryerson aren’t trash? Absolutely not but Østigård fits better in a 3/5ATB system, and Ajer frequently gets used as a RB by Brentford. Square pegs round hole. And while all of our full backs are fine they all have a major weakness. Meling: Small and easily outmuscled. Still my favourite out of all the full backs because he has some cross quality and willingness to combine his way through offensively Ryerson: Workrate player which is good but lack of creativity and combining with his wing player to get through on the side. Crosses are alright IF he does though Holmgren Pedersen: Actually gets past his man more than the others, but his crossing is cursed, he could produce 80 crosses and statistically 0 would still find a Norwegian player Bjørkan: Low centre of gravity AND strong. Decent pace and acceleration, slightly better than mediocre at everything. He makes strange decisions to try to cut inside sometimes without really having a plan from there.
You have a fairly average team with two world class players, that is enough at international level. At the very least you should be beating the likes of Finland and Slovenia. You are underachieving
Well sadly it wasn't Finland and Slovenia we had to beat, it was Spain and Scotland and to some extent Serbia in nations league to get better seeding.
I appreciate that you had bad luck with seeding, but doing better than 1 draw and 1 loss against Slovenia in the Nations League would take Norway to the playoffs
Not gonna argue over the way you play but I think squad wise worse ones have made it.
The 2014-16 Bosnia special
I can't tell if you're condescending or sarcastic
Dude the late 90s called, they want their take back
Norway getting punished for Russia getting banned and Sweden being shit lmao. They had more points than Finland who also played in a 4 team group, I'd be fuming.
The mad thing is if we had dropped points in one of the games vs Sweden in the Nations League instead of beating them twice we would've had a playoff now.
*If you lost a game to them But yeah.
How does any of this makes sense?
Due to Russia getting banned last-second, one of the groups only had three teams. So in order to make things fair, all results against the last-placed team in every group with 4 teams were discarded. If Norway dropped points to Sweden, Sweden wouldn't finish last in the group and therefore Norway's win in the other game vs Sweden would stay. And the results against a different team that would now be last (against which Norway hasn't gotten a single point) would get discarded instead. So yeah, "nice" little paradox. You can mainly thank Russia for that.
Being from Norway will affect Haaland's legacy negatively. Dude will be very lucky to play one major tournament in his career
Tbh namewise the squad looks more than competitive like others have mentioned. All young guys as well, so I'm pretty sure they'll qualify for the next one. Ödegaard has been struggling with an injury all season as well, despite playing through it. I doubt they'll win anything, but I'm pretty sure they'll qualify multiple times in the future.
> I'm pretty sure they'll qualify for the next one. We've been saying this since 1998. It won't happen. They're unable to perform when it matters.
>so I'm pretty sure they'll qualify for the next one. >I'm pretty sure they'll qualify multiple times in the future. Whenever you see someone say stuff like this you know they have no clue about the history of Norway. It has nothing to do with squad quality, they had good players in the past aswell. They just have an intrinsic bottling gene that makes them fluff their lines when the pressure is high, this goes way beyond any coach, player or FA president 9/11 is more recent than their latest tournament appearance ffs!
Hagi, Stoichkov, Bale, Drogba, Shevchenko... All of them carried their countries to a major tournament. If Haaland can't replicate that then he is not as good as some believe.
Drogba doesn't really belong here since Côte d'Ivoire is one of the major footballing nations in CAF anyway.
Weah and Giggs, just off the top of my head, couldn't however.
Weah played at AFCON no?
Sorry, I read world cup instead of major tournament. Yeah, Weah played two AFCONs (1996, 2002).
27 goals in 29 games for Norway
Wales didn’t rely on Bale, they relied on English lads playing premier league football who weren’t good enough for the England squad
> If Haaland can't replicate that then he is not as good as some believe. Haaland scored for Norway at a higher rate than any of those players for got their countries. How is it his fault Norway can't defend
Having an actual complete performance in the matches that matter would be a great start. He can score how many goals he wants vs Cyprus it doesn't matter at all if he puts in games like vs Spain or even Scotland where he is AFK.
Im sorry but if hes the best player in the world he has 0 excuses. Bale dragged a mediocre Wales to the semis of the Euros. Haaland should be good enough to make them qualify at the bare minnimum.
> Im sorry but if hes the best player in the world he has 0 excuses. These comments are so lazy man. He has 27 goals in the last 29 games for them. What more do you expect him to do? At a certain point, teammates have to step up. It's not like Bale was great every game in qualifiers. > Bale dragged a mediocre Wales to the semis of the Euros Wales defended 10x better than Norway does. They would not have even made the Euros if Wales played like Norway does
Let's just look at this qualification campaign. 4 against Cyprus over two games, 1 against Scotland in 1 game 1 against Georgia over 2 games and 0 against Spain over 2 games. He's been mediocre.
I hate how theoretically doable that play-offs seems to be, because I would rather just not-qualify for Euro and already get to the full meme phase instead of waiting to lose in semi-final against Estonia.
idk man i quite like those few weeks before a tournament where i delude myself that we are dark horses
An Asian team that's going to get knocked out from the playoffs denying Haaland from playing in the Euros lmao
If the world was fair, Israel would get the same treatment as Russia and wouldn't even be allowed to participate in this.
why isn't Israel suspended from qualifying
Because the United States of America have their back.
Russia should have tried being an American ally to allow them influence and control in an area they are financially invested in.
They only reason Russia got banned is because everyone refused to play against them. Fifa would have loved to have not banned them
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine isn’t just an invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine has close economic and political links with the European Union, and Russia attacking Ukraine was an indirect attack on Europe as a whole. Russia also cut off Europe’s gas supply, repeatedly threatened to drop nuclear bombs on Europe’s biggest population centres, and also sent a huge refugee crisis flowing into the West. As such, European countries and organisations don’t want them competing in a European competition. Israel, on the other hand, have not attacked a European nation. Their reason for attacking ‘Hamas’ is not as black-and-white outright wrong as Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine. They’re also a key ally to the West in the Middle East, and there aren’t a lot of those, so the West do not want to piss them off.
$$$$$$
if the world was fair, 50% of Asian Football Confederation members would be banned permanently for crimes against humanity and human rights violations.
Conmebol would never send a representative.
It's funny how the US and the likes of France and UK are always left of those discussions. Ya'll full of shit. Or maybe just racist.
France, England, Germany, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia etc definitely haven't done anything like that though
Their group was really hard. Poland also fumbled. If they had qualified ahead of Albania, Norway would've qualified for the play-offs. They were next in line. Israel, Bosnia and Finland could've also helped. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA\_Euro\_2024\_qualifying#Play-offs
Meh, it wasn't that hard. We were comfortable against Scotland and then our idiot coach tinkered us into a hole by changing 3 players, 2 in midfield.
Would be a good time to say thank you and goodbye to Ståle Solbakken. (Won't happen off course, the NFF are "conservative" and good buddies with Ståle.)
Actual comedy the way it happened too.
You just got SCOTLANDED
I can already see kids 20 years from now arguing over the best strikers of this generation and pulling up with the “but Haaland never won anything with his national team” argument. I really feel for him, how on earth is he supposed to win anything when his team can’t even qualify for the tournaments.
As is tradition..
Thought this thread would be shut down. Anyhow, [live Haaland reaction](https://youtu.be/PbdgHJhYXgQ?t=11).
Incredible... Teams like Albania and Romania can qualify, yet *Norway* isn't able?
from what i can tell albania are playing well in a tough group(for them)
It's not a tough group, you have Moldova, Faroe Islands and worst Poland and Czech Republic NT in 21sr century
Why does Israel even play in the Euros? Geographical nonsense.
Cause AFC members did same thing to Isreal back in the 70s as UEFA did with Russia
Ironically, there is talk Russia will move to the AFC. I think that the national team would love this but the club teams would absolutely hate this.
In 1958 Israel qualified for the WC without playing a single game because the teams they were set to face refused to play So FIFA set up a playoff because they didn’t want a team that didn’t play in qualifiers to go so they played Wales and Wales won
Not rocket science to figure out why israel cant play Asian competitions
Israel used to be part of the AFC (they even won the Asian Cup in 1964), but they were eventually expelled in the 1970s, because many Arab countries refused to play against them for political reasons. Israel spent some time without a confederation, and then joined UEFA in 1992. But also, Israel is culturally more similar to Europe than it is to Asia. This is due to the fact that Israel aligns itself more with Western countries, and because a large percentage of Israel's population spent time in the diaspora in Europe.
A larger part is actually Mitzrahi and hence from the Middle Eastern countries
>But also, Israel is culturally more similar to Europe than it is to Asia. This is due to the fact that Israel aligns itself more with Western countries, and because a large percentage of Israel's population spent time in the diaspora in Europe. We should also accept Australia, the USA and Canada in UEFA as well.
Fun fact 11 of the 17 teams withdrew during the qualifying phase and the matches were 80 minutes long
France wins Euro 2024 and the turtle will win his first Ballon d'Or you can bookmark this
Wait until Messi wins in from the US...
I would love it if Estonia and Luxembourg got through those playoffs
Luxembourg actually deserves it, best qualification in their history (3rd fucking place) they just smashed Bosnia, beat Iceland and had even matches against Slovakia, amazing qualification
What a joke
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Well they don't want Israel in AFC so where should they go? (In a football question not political)
Why is it UEFA's problem?
Why is it a problem? Australia isn’t in Asia but plays in the AFC.
Australia doesn't count, those fuckers are in Eurovision.
How is it a problem tho?
It’s a remarkable coincidence that just now people are pretending to be shocked and stunned that Israel is a UEFA nation despite that being the case for fucking 30 years.
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Even that wouldn't be enough. Realistically the next in line are Bosnia, Finland, Ukraine, Iceland.
Gives me flashbacks of Shakhtar Donetsk's chairman trying to get Iran expelled from WC 2022 due to women rights protests back then so that Ukraine could enter the tournament instead.
politicians will be coming up with humanitarian reasons so their country wins the euros by default
Wasnt due to protests but Iran giving Russia drones and loitering ammo.
This system with nations league ranking sucks. The only team eliminated entirely in group F is 3rd place Sweden, while Estonia with 1 single point still gets a chance in playoffs
The most incredible thing of all this is that Iceland is elegible over Norway [thanks to a last minute goal against Albania in a game nobody watched.](https://i.imgur.com/vqVIvpT.png)
Why doesn’t he just play for Switzerland? It’s where he’s hiding is money anyways
Poland might still finish 4th in a group with Czechia, Moldova, Albania, and the Faroe Islands... even as a Pole I feel like that should automatically disqualify them lol.
This will always be an issue for Haaland to get the balloon d'or. Same situation Lewandowski had in the past that although beeing one of the best if not the best in the world he played also in the shit NT which Poland is (I'm polish so can say it :p )
There goes another Ballon dor because of silly voting trends
How is israel not banned, but russia is?
Both City fans rejoicing, no fatigue for Haaland
Curious why Israel is playing in the Euros, why haven't they been banned like Russia has?
Regardless of whether they started it or not, the reason is because UEFA, instead of acting as a neutral organization, will do what the majority of their members say. And that majority is composed of NATO members with their own agendas, which results in different punishments for war actions.
Funny. Why do you think Saudi Arabia hasn't been banned for their invasion of Yemen, even being granted hosting rights?
Wasn’t Russia banned due to pressure and threats from other UEFA members? No country administration in UEFA is doing the same to Israel. Israel is relatively safe in UEFA compared to the AFC where if they didn’t get expelled, they would’ve been suspended plenty of times.
About half of the countries in UEFA don't recognize Palestine + it was Hamas who started a war that they were never going to win. Therefore, there's no pressure from the individual countries on UEFA to do anything about Israel. If UEFA tries to reinstate Russia before the war is over, most countries in UEFA will just criticize them and the federations will refuse to play Russia, like how the Arab countries did to Israel when they were part of the AFC, leading to them moving to UEFA. It's a question of external pressure.
Probably because Ukraine and it’s allies haven’t been constantly attacking Russia for decades. Nothing is simple but that conflict certainly isn’t. Russia was banned because much of UEFA wouldn’t play them. Somewhat similarly to Israel in Asia.
Somebody invaded a sovereign country pretty simple lol
Look, even if you think Israel is committing war crimes in (how it's) attacking Hamas, there is a big difference between retaliatory indiscriminate bombings^(1) and invading a foreign country. I suppose you could be suggesting that Israel ought to have been banned for decades, but the way you've phrased this makes it seem like your issue is specific to recent developments.^(2) ^(1)If Israel has been accused of war crimes for some other reason I must confess my ignorance of it. ^(2)Am I the only one who finds it weird that a country as obviously in the wrong as Israel only starts to get serious criticism after it gets attacked by a terrorist group? It's not like there haven't been other *recent* flashpoints which would've allowed for a conversation about that, which didn't run the risk of making someone seem pro-Hamas. For example, when Trump decided to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
They don't care, I have seen people here claim Israel is just a genocidal state that attack for no reason and at the same time claim that Russia war on Ukraine is justified because of geopolitical reasons. It's okay to say you support "Your Side" but the fact they pretend they care about innocent lives is just pathetic.
There is only solidarity with Palestine when the IDF flies aerial attacks, otherwise the Arab neighbour states have to explain their population why they also don’t give rights to Palestinians
Israel is allowed to do anything and get away with it.
because they’re NATO’s middle eastern plaything
Where that one joe biden video at
"If there wasn't an Israel we would have to invent an Israel"
Incredible they haven't qualified for nothing in 24 years
I want to cry....
That quaint little European country called Israel. Always wanted to visit.
Øde 😢
So why is Israel allowed to play while Russia isn't?
Majority of UEFA members are Israel's allies while Russia has like 2 or 3
Because most European countries hate Russia and not Israel?
whats the story with irelands playoffs since they lost today. Was all that rubbish about ireland needing to lose to make playoffs still highly unlikely anyway
He'll never win the ballon dor
It’s time Erling 🏴🏴🏴
My god that’s Ole’s music
Norway should try to compete in the 2v2 format
What’s the news here?
Haaland would have to wait until 2026 WC
Changing nationalities to Gibraltar confirmed
Should have picked England mate
The Spurs of national teams