NORWAY – FINLAND | Sunday 2pm
Norway can rely on what is currently the strongest striker on the face of the earth and that answers to the name of Erling Braut Haaland. And it is precisely for this reason that the Scandinavian selection’s failure to qualify for the World Cup makes even more noise. In Qatar, in addition to Italy as European champions, we will not be able to see the Manchester City slinger, who scored 18 goals in 13 Premier League matches, at work. Haaland will have to be content with watching the World Cup on TV, waiting to start scoring goals again with Pep Guardiola’s Citizens. In the meantime, he will try to recover from the foot injury that prevented him from playing last Thursday’s friendly against Ireland. And coach Stale Solbakken will most likely not field him against Finland either, another test between national teams not participating in the most important international event.
Norway returned to winning ways this week after two consecutive defeats in September in the Nations League against Slovenia and Serbia. Napoli defender Ostigard also got on the scoresheet in the match against the Irish. Finland, on the other hand, did not go beyond a draw (1-1) with North Macedonia. Markku Kanerva’s men finished third in the qualifying round behind France and Ukraine, also ruling out a chance of making the play-offs. They are, however, unbeaten for three matches, having drawn with Romania and beaten Montenegro in the Nations League two months ago.
The Prediction
Norway, apart from Haaland’s presence, are slight favourites in this Scandinavian derby in a match in which both should score.
Norway v Finland line-up probables
- NORWAY (4-5-1): Nyland; Pedersen, Strandberg, Ostigard, Bjorkan; Solbakken, Odegaard, Berg, Thorsby, Elyounoussi; Larsen.
- FINLAND (4-4-2): Hradecky; L. Vaisanen, Ivanov, S. Vaisanen, Alho; Soiri, Lod, Taylor, Lingman; Forss, Pohjanpalo.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-1
