[ad_1]
Swedish national team captain Lars Lagerbäck has a Norwegian team on the rise, with players like Martin Ødegaard and Erling Braut Håland. But when it really came down to that.
At home in Ullevål, Norway started stiffly and passively and seemed taken by the seriousness of the moment in their quest to reach their first championship final in 20 years.
it was only the inability of the Serbian team to take advantage of several clear chances that initially saved Norway. The worst scorer was the weak Premier League Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic, who burned a great position early in the match.
Lagerbäck had a few things to talk to the players about during the half-time break, but Serbia kept pushing. And burn opportunities. Filip Djuricic dusted his forehead after Rune Jarstein reflexively saved his close shot shortly after the break.
Finally, the payoff came when Sergei Milinkovic-Savic closely pressed Mitrovic’s performance. The winning goal? It looked like this, but with less than three minutes to go, Mathias Normann landed a full blow that slipped past Predrag Rajkovic on Serbia’s goal and took the game into extra time.
There, the Serbs were the strongest and Milinkovic-Savic the coldest when he fell gracefully at 2-1.
Erik Hamrén and his Iceland had a less dramatic and demanding journey towards the directly decisive match for a place in the European Championship. Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson made it 2-0 at half-time. Are you ready against Romania at home in Reykjavik? Not really.
The reduction of Alexandru Maxim on penalties gave the game new momentum, but the Icelanders held on and in November the decision fell in Hungary.
Willi Orban, Emil Forsberg’s teammate in Leipzig, brought the Hungarians one step closer to Euro football at home in Budapest this summer. Zsolt Kalmar scored 2-0 in Sofia and when Nemanja Nikolics rose to 3-0, the dreams of the Euro Cup in Bulgaria died.
Georgij Jomov dropped to 1-3 at the end.
Scotland v Israel (0-0), Slovakia v Ireland (0-0) and Bosnia and Herzegovina v Northern Ireland (1–1) went to penalties.
Liam boyce faced Northern Ireland with the final penalty, Slovakia scored their first four penalties, while Ireland only conceded two, so the match was decided. And Scotland is ahead after five of five penalties, while Israel missed one.
North Macedonia beat Kosovo 2-1 and will face Georgia, who beat Belarus 1-0 at home
The Swedish interest seems to revolve around the meeting between Northern Ireland and Slovakia. The winner awaits Blågult in the group stage of the European Championship in Dublin this summer.
