– Very, very bad – VG

Lars Lagerbäck (72) had never lost in Oslo as coach of the Norwegian national team, but against Austria, the Swede sent an unusually docile team onto the Ullevaal green carpet.

– It is quite easy to summarize this match: it was a Norwegian team that did not work for 60 minutes. We were passive. We were scattered all over Norway, it felt. Very difficult to explain. It was very, very bad, Lagerbäck says at a post-match press conference.

The Norwegian players immediately raced for a physically robust and ball-safe Austrian team. The frustration grew little by little, and after 35 minutes Michael Gregoritsch took advantage of a weak marking job by Kristoffer Ajer and headed 1-0.

Thorsby error

Before the goal, Morten Thorsby was tackled vigorously, but replays showed that midfielder Xaver Schlager had the ball and the Sampdoria pro was simply not good enough in the decisive situation.

– We don’t play with the moves and changes of venue as we should, says Lagerbäck, who promises a significantly more “scored” team against Northern Ireland on Monday.

Nine minutes after the team change, the situation got even worse when RB Leipzig star Marcel Sabitzer scored the 2-0 on a mistaken penalty. Rune Jarstein was on the right track, but the ball went through the root of the post and into it.

Sander Berge had his arm close to his body, but his jaw still dropped when the ball hit just above the elbow.

– I’m very disappointed. It was not the beginning we expected. We must learn from this here, restart quickly, and wait for Monday. Because it is an important match, says Jarstein.

Changes made

Lagerbäck made several moves and featured both Martin Linnes and Alexander Sørloth. The latter quickly recovered very well on the left side and perfectly hit Braut Haaland in front of the goal.

Jærbuen broke free and scored his first goal for Norway as the stadium clock ticked 65 minutes 36 seconds, directing the ball past Schlager into the Austrian cage, but the online awareness of Jæren’s phenomenon was not enough to prevent the first defeat of the national team at the Ullevaal with Lagerbäck. .

The next home opponent is Serbia in the Eurocup playoffs.

– It is difficult to explain how we ended up in this situation. It is the whole team that is not working. We were too careful, while Austria played very well, says Lagerbäck.

– Do you see any changes I could have made?

– Yes, we can be retrospective when we don’t get it right for 60 minutes. I think Rune did well. If it was the wrong team selection? Much is possible, says Lagerbäck.

Controversial punishment

The Norwegian boys got up the last 30 minutes, but they don’t have to be happy with the first hour. Stefan Johansen, Sander Berge, Mathias Normann and Morten Thorsby then had a lot of problems in midfield, which contributed to the whole team struggling both defensively and offensively.

On the margins, there was little progress, something that Lagerbäck tried to improve when he edged out right-back Linnes in the second half. Sabitzer dictated the image of the match almost as he wanted for Austria in the first hour, while Joshua King and Braut Haaland had very little to work with at the top.

Towards the end, however, the game changed character, and Berge should have been leveling when Mathias Normann lifted a post perfectly off the back post, but the Sheffield United pro blocked the ball out.

They could still have been points for Norway, were it not for the Finn Mattias Gestranius’ penalty at the hands of Berge. Not only was that assessment incorrect, but the replays also showed that it should have been ruled out in advance by an Austrian player.

P.S! Romania and Northern Ireland, the other two teams in the Norwegian Nations League group, played 1-1 in Bucharest.