That’s why Norway must win tonight – VG

It’s easy to understand, Norway hasn’t been in the playoffs all the time in just over 20 years.

But already tonight, the dream of the World Cup may be over, if the focus is not changed immediately.

Lars Lagerbäck and Norway made it difficult with a 1-2 at home to Austria, the supposedly strongest rival in the Nations League group. The victory in the Nations League group is and will be Norway’s best chance for a World Cup final, where the famous eye of the needle keeps getting narrower.

In practice, qualifying for a World Cup final is about twice as difficult as it is for a European Championship final. At the European Championship, Norway qualifies for 24 places in the championship.

In the World Cup it is almost half: 13 places will get Europe in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

So it goes without saying that every match counts, especially through the “stealth method” as the Nations League can be called.

Immediately after the Nations League is completed in November, the qualifying groups for the European World Cup are drawn from the FIFA rankings. In the first five “pots” there are 10 layers, in the last there are five layers. At the moment, Norway is number 25 of the European teams in the FIFA ranking. This means that Norway probably ends up in ‘well three’, and that Lars Lagerbäck and co. Guaranteed to land two very tough opponents in the World Cup qualifiers.

And at least Norway doesn’t finish higher in the FIFA rankings by losing matches in the Nations League. Because if we want to be among the top 20 European nations, and thus finish in “pot 2” and get a slightly easier path to the World Cup, then Norway must go to Iceland (24), Russia (23), Romania (22), Northern Ireland. (21) and Ireland (20).

So it would be prudent, for various reasons, to start by beating Northern Ireland on Monday night. In his 31st match as national coach, Lars Lagerbäck will restart a Norwegian national team where work began on March 26, 2017.

It should be and will be a Norwegian team looking for revenge, after the tummy crash against Austria. Neither Lagerbäck nor the players saw it coming, and the Swede admits that the team may have been too confident of victory after many good matches the last time the players met.

And the truth is as brutal as it is terrifying: on Monday night, even the simplest World Cup opportunity may have been exhausted. Without a win against Northern Ireland, which Norway have beaten in six of the last seven meetings between the teams, the road through a group victory in the Nations League will be almost gone. Because Austria is strong and unlikely to lose many points in the rest of the tournament.

For the 2022 World Cup in Europe, the 10 group winners, plus the two in the groups, plus the two highest ranked teams, which are not prepared for the Nations League World Cup, will play for the last three places. .

The World Cup may not have been further for a Norwegian national team since the failure of qualification for the 2002 championship.

So tonight you have to earn it.

Start of the match 20:45.