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TWO OF THE GIANTS OF THE FIELD: Serbian midfielder Nikola Milenkovic (195cm, right) is one of the defensive clips that Erling Braut Haaland (194cm) will fine-tune on Thursday night. Photo: Bjørn S. Delebekk
ULLEVÅL (VG) will crash as Norwegian and Serbian wrestlers bark together for victory in Thursday’s European Championship playoffs. The two squads contain no less than 17 players over 189 centimeters.
The duel is terrifying.
The “Balkan lads”, as Erling Braut Haaland has dubbed Serbia, can boast ten, from forward Aleksandar Mitrovic at 189cm to Fiorentina stopper Nikola Milenkovic at 195cm. And that’s without counting on Nikola Maksimovic (193 cm) who did not get permission from Napoli to travel to Oslo to play the important match that gives the opportunity to fight for a place in the next final of the European Championship.
The winner progresses to the final of the European Championship playoffs and faces Scotland or Israel in a decisive match for the European Championship. The loser must watch the championship from the bench.
The Norwegians have also ingested enough breast milk and concentrate: from Stefan Strandberg and Morten Thorsby at 189cm to Kristoffer Ajer at 198cm, the Norwegian squad consists of seven players in this order of magnitude.
The figures should come as no surprise: Norway (fourth) and Serbia (fifth) are in fact among the five countries in the world with the highest average height in population, second only to the Netherlands, Montenegro and Denmark.
– I expect tough duels, says Serbian stopper Milenkovic to VG.
– I am not very tall, but Serbia as a nation has a lot of tall people. I think Norway and Serbia are the national teams with the tallest players. It will be very interesting to watch these matches, says the director of the Serbian national team, Ljubiša Tumbaković.
– Of course it will be intense, says Haaland, who does not make his way in the air (194 cm), but has other qualities that can put Serbs to bed, according to the director of the national team Lars Lagerbäck:
– In defense, all the Serbian players are over 1.90, so in that sense they are great, but I don’t think they have the speed of Erling or the speed of Martin Ødegaard to name two players, so we can beat him in different ways.
Serbia will likely compete with the trio of plugs Nikola Milenkovic (195 cm), Strahinja Pavlovic (194) and Aleksandar Mitrovic (187 cm) against Norwegian lighthouses Haaland and Alexander Sørloth (193 cm).
– We are very good on the field, and then also in the back room. I don’t think they are the fastest, so if we manage to register behind them and go one-on-one then we can create big problems for them, Sørloth tells VG about the attack strategy.
– I don’t want to say too much about it, but I know him “Kolaroven” in particular, I think he plays there as a midfielder. I know they are great midfielders, I know they are good, but we are good too, says Haaland.
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Lagerbäck points to dead balls, where Serbia is dangerous with Kolarov’s precise passes, as a very important part of the battle, and something that can affect their team selection. Under his leadership, Norway have scored 19 of 54 goals after a set piece.
– You have dead ball situations that are important. It is a factor that you include in the image if you stand and weigh between two players, says the Swede.
– Is it a disadvantage for Mathias Normann (179 cm) that he is smaller than Sander Berge (195 cm) and Markus Henriksen (187 cm)?
– He is clearly a worse player in the head, but instead has other advantages. If there is anyone physically strong, it is him. If you look at him in Russia, he’s a bit too aggressive and daring in certain situations, so you don’t need to worry about him when it comes to physics.
