– They were completely finished – VG

Bottom line: Much of what was emphatically asked for after the 0-3 loss to Turkey in Malaga on Saturday.

Field coach Alexander Sørloth easily put up the winning goal against Montenegro after brilliant preparation by Mohamed Elyounoussi in the first half.

– Now we are back. We had the knife to our throats and we had to win, Sørloth tells TV 2.

Solbakken screamed hoarsely for the last agonizing minutes, but he held on completely, with a crossbar from Joshua King as the last thing to happen.

Thus, Norway remains with six points in three games after the first meeting of the new coach of the national team.

– He sat deep inside, but it was deserved. When four or five players have cramps towards the end, it gets tough. It was the third match in seven days, it has been a tough journey, we had a mental explosion against Turkey and we found a team with a tailwind … So there is something lurking there, says Solbakken hoarse to VG after breaking into the countryside. in jubilation at the final sign.

– You yelled a lot at the players towards the end …

– I saw that they were completely finished. We had plugs, rims and a cramp back. Then it was just to chase them under pressure and change formations.

See the reactions after the game here:

Solbakken made two team changes from the highly criticized band that received Turkish pepper three days in advance: Jonas Svensson regained the spot on right-back, Morten Thorsby had the opportunity early on in midfield.

And the latter was on everyone’s lips after a first half in which he delivered a series of whistling but fair tackles, good plays against Sørloth and Erling Braut Haaland and a semi-dangerous long shot.

– He’s up front. There we have the lead guy, exclaimed an enthusiastic Bernt Hulsker in the VGTV studio, where John Arne Riise and Kjetil Rekdal voted at the Thorsby Rose.

The Sampdoria player had played 25 games in Serie A since the last time he had the opportunity from the beginning with the national team, on September 4 of last year, but put in good odds for a greater confidence in the midfield of Solbakken.

– It has a very good range of action, assesses Solbakken, who undoubtedly asks that Thorsby be calmer with the ball.

Sørloth, with a fresh goal, stood for the third consecutive game as one of Norway’s leading players, while Elyounoussi showed long-awaited glimpses of his well-known qualities as he directed Sørloth’s goal with good dribbling and clever and precise delivery.

Rune Jarstein, after being substituted on a break against Turkey because he was “completely empty”, took the lead with a masterful save after finishing off Stevan Jovetic on Montenegro’s biggest chance in the second half.

On the other hand, the evening for the two great Norwegian stars was not so positive.

For the first time since joining Molde when he was 16 years old, Haaland has started three football games in a row without scoring a goal. He had a couple of chances, but he wasn’t as accurate in the finals as what Football Europe has spoiled in recent years.

But it was Ødegaard who received the greatest dose of criticism from the experts.

The Arsenal player was never satisfied in his right-wing role. It was repeatedly pointed out in the VGTV studio, where Rekdal called her performance “mediocre and ordinary,” while Hulsker described the star as follows:

Solbakken also didn’t seem completely satisfied with the efforts of the stars, with 10 minutes to go, he replaced both Haaland and Ødegaard in favor of Joshua King and Martin Linnes.

– He doesn’t care that there are big names. I think it’s class, Rekdal says of the Solbakken double swap.

– We needed to close the right side, there was so much duel and Erling was a bit exhausted. It was to keep zero, nothing more than that, Solbakken explains.