National emergency team with heroic performance against Austria – VG

Ghayas Zahid, who traveled from Cyprus to Oslo on Monday night, scored his first goal for the national team and made sure Norway had the miracle within their grasp until the end.

– They saw the opportunity and seized it. There are many who are underrated here, acting national team manager Leif Gunnar Smerud tells TV 2.

But thanks to a late goal from Adrian Grbic, it is Austria who wins the Nations League group with 13 points to Norway’s 10. And then it doesn’t even matter if Norway wins a possible appeal to UEFA after being sanctioned with a 0-3-loss against Romania.

But Lars Lagerbäck, or whoever leads the national team during the next meeting in March, has been given some new names to count on when eliminating a team from the Norwegian national team.

For the heroes of the national emergency team he gave everything, absolutely everything, for Norway.

– This is an awesome effort from the Norwegian guys. We created 6-7 great chances and if this had happened, we would have scored 1-0 even earlier, says Kjetil Rekdal in the VGTV studio:

Strand Larsen possibilities

The Austrian squad hosted a total of 649 international matches before kickoff. The Norwegian? 38.

23 of them were Mats Møller Dæhli. The emergency captain, who is in a dark period in the club team, played as if he had to make up for everything that has gone against him in recent years, all the injury problems, potholes and disappointments. The left wing with the low center of gravity worked tirelessly from the start, dominating and motivating teammates, and was always creative with the ball.

Also impressive was Jørgen Strand Larsen, who had the first chance of the match after just two minutes. He lowered the ball to his chest and got plenty of room at the 16-meter inning, but the shot went straight to the goalkeeper.

The opportunity he had at 34 minutes was even greater. After a good ball from Sondre Tronstad – a giant in the center of the field – a pressured Strand Larsen finished only with the goalkeeper, but Pavao Pervan with difficulty and barely drifted towards the corner.

The keeper stood out again when Jørgen Skjelvik had a great opportunity to put Norway ahead just three minutes later.

Austria also had their chances before the break, twice from Marko Arnautovic, but the Norwegian emergency team led by a good margin in the first half. In 35 minutes against Austria, he created three times as many chances as the A team achieved in 120 minutes against Serbia in October.

Ellevill Bråtveit

A day and a half before the start of the match, the players had not even physically met. They ran a training session together and had been traveling in Europe since Monday night. After the the first round must be empty of energy? Think again. Norway also shook Austria after the break, and Dæhli came close to making it 1-0 after being played by Strand Larsen.

– If you fall to the ground there, you get a penalty kick, said TV 2 expert Brede Hangeland, but Dæhli was too honest.

And the moment that followed was simply wonderful: Ghayas Zahid, who traveled the furthest of all to line up, from Nicosia in Cyprus, pushed the ball into goal after a goal pass from the Veton Berisha treadmill.

Should that really be possible? Even with a goalkeeper who landed in Vienna 7.5 hours before kick-off after the Norwegian Football Association had to pay 100,000 crowns for private jets? Per Kristian Bråtveit contributed his share: 20 minutes before the end he delivered a mega save and incredibly stopped Adrian Grbic from the finish.

In the end, with just seconds left in the match, Bråtveit had to surrender for the same man.

– It’s sad that we don’t win. But we get so tired when chasing 2-0 that we can’t resist, says Bernt Hulsker.

The case is being updated!