When FOX Sports hires Zlatan Ibrahimovic as an expert commentator for the World Cup broadcasts, they pay for headlines. Now, English and Americans hardly care what the Swede/citizen of the world says about Norway, but for us it is always interesting to see how the Swedish legend views Norway.
Sweden limped to the World Cup, limped through from the group stage, and then were knocked out in the round of 16. Norway convincingly went to the quarter-finals – where England should be grateful that they were not knocked out.
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We rowed home, England would continue the journey towards the World Cup title. In the semi-finals, there was a complete stop, after giving up a 1-0 lead to Argentina and Messi more than half a half to crack the English defensive wall.
This, of course, created a storm of disappointment and anger on the ball island. Zlatan believes the English have nothing to get excited about, they are simply not title contenders in the championship.
And where does Norway come in?
Zlatan uses Norway as an opponent to emphasize the ridiculously easy road to the semi-finals the Three Lions had.
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“If you look back, England have won one World Cup, in 1966. How many times have they beaten a real team?, Zlatan began according to ESPN.
“Let’s be honest. They won against Norway. With all due respect to Norway, but it’s not a proper team,” Zlatan said.
Before, we had been provoked by Zlatan’s throwaway remark about the Norwegian national team. This was before. After being part of the journey through the World Cup qualifiers with the 1-4 victory at San Siro against Italy as a finish, seen Norway qualify for the World Cup’s round of 16 after a 4-1 win over Iraq and a 3-2 win over Africa’s best/second best nation Senegal, experienced a 2-1 win against Ivory Coast, then a 2-1 win against the best nation in World Cup history Brazil – before we could just as easily have sent England out of the World Cup, then Zlatan can call us whatever he wants.
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Norway now has a foundation, games and individual players that will give all opponents in the world trouble. In addition, we have learned to decide games – also when it matters most. Sorry, Zlatan, the condescending description of Norway bounces off us.
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