The Norwegian national team left their home country with a first-half football session at Ullevaal against Sweden. Graham Potter’s men were simply outplayed before half-time. It’s easy for us to think we’re already world champions here at home, so Sunday’s reality check against Morocco didn’t come as a surprise. French journalists enjoyed themselves greatly, as they could hammer in headlines how shaken Haaland and the gang were in the meeting with Morocco.
It ended 1-1 in New Jersey, with goals from Brahim Díaz and Martin Ødegaard. In terms of play, it was a tough affair for Ståle Solbakken and the Norwegian players. We didn’t keep up with the Moroccans’ impressive opening, which ended with an early goal by Diaz. In previous championships, we have seen that the one first goal can be enough to control to victory.
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We fought our way to an equalizer, but French journalists threw themselves at the weak opening to Norway.
“Morocco dominates Haaland’s teammates. The Norwegians, who are the French national team’s future opponents in the World Cup, were in great trouble and did not show much interest – as did Erling Haaland, who was completely neutralized by Issa Diop and the Moroccan defense, French TV channel RMC reported.
It is quite clear that the French media have been frightened by what they have seen of Norway in the World Cup qualifiers. French journalists can enjoy Norway’s weak opening – and believe Les Bleus will not struggle against Norway. We are rather happy that we got a goal and prevented backwards for the rest of the game.
Morocco represents a completely different football – and level – than our opponents in the World Cup qualifiers. This is the nation that went all the way to the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup and in January to the final of the Africa Cup of Nations.
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