It took a double from a “on fire” Erling Haaland and a lot of resistance at the end for Norway to overcome Senegal (3-2), Monday in East Rutherford (New Jersey), and punch their ticket to the round of 16 of the World Cup.
The Norwegians offered themselves an enticing Group I final on Friday against France, who easily disposed of Iraq (3-0), earlier in Philadelphia, despite a deluge which delayed the resumption of the match after half-time by 2 hours and 10 minutes. And the “Vikings” will have to win to finish in the lead, the goal difference currently being favorable to the Blues (+5/+4).
“The last ten minutes were the longest of my life, we lost control and that was the only moment of the match,” said coach Staale Solbakken. “We played against one of the best teams in Africa and if we had played just a little bit worse, we could have lost.”
In a packed stadium (80,663 spectators) where the Norwegian red dominated, Senegalese goalkeeper Edouard Mendy had work to do in the first period. After two saves against Christoffer Ajer and Martin Odegaard (3rd, 37th), he was unable to do anything on Marcus Pedersen’s (43rd) opener on a ball poorly repelled by captain Kalidou Koulibaly (43rd).
My specialty
Erling Haaland could have doubled the lead at the end of the first period after stealing the ball from Mendy’s feet, but his shot hit the post and in the process, his header was caught by the al-Ahli goalkeeper.
It was only a postponement. From the start of the second half, the Manchester City scorer worsened the score by taking a deep ball from Odegaard with his right, which Koulibaly was unable to block (48th).
“Everyone makes mistakes, in the end it’s the team that loses, not a player,” commented defender Ismail Jakobs.
And ten minutes later, Haaland scored his second double of the competition by taking a serve from Patrick Berg (58th) from the right under the bar. The “Cyborg” has now scored 59 goals in 52 caps.
“Scoring goals is my specialty and I’m good at it,” commented Haaland.
“He could have scored four goals tonight, he was on fire,” said Solbakken.
Beaten in midfield, the Senegalese had the merit of not giving up and on a deep pass from Sadio Mané, Ismaïla Sarr resisted David Moller Wolfe to beat Orjan Nyland from close range (53rd).
Mané struggled on his right side but he very rarely found Nicolas Jackson (28th, 39th, 51st).
Lions not dead
But the Lions of Téranga were still roaring: at the very end of the match, Sarr also scored a double (90th + 3) from the right, making their opponents doubt and giving hope to his family. Alas, Ibrahim MBaye then Sarr’s header missed the target (90th+9) and the equalizer which would have changed many things for them in this World Cup.
“It was a difficult match. The Norwegians were very efficient and scored two goals at the worst times for us,” commented coach Pape Thiaw.
“It’s difficult but we’re not dead, we have to go for victory and score goals for the goal average and try to qualify. It will then be another tournament,” he added.
They will indeed have to beat Iraq by a large number of goals, to hope to finish among the best thirds.
Far from these considerations, the Norwegians, whose best run in the World Cup dates back to 1998 (round of 16), were able to commune with their supporters at the final whistle, in their “rower dance” which had become viral.
