It is Scotland who are in pole position in Group A. An historic win over Spain off the back of victory over Cyprus has put them in a strong position at the start of qualifying for Euro 2024.
While they’ve been out meticulously planning for this month’s round of fixtures on a warm-weather training camp, they’ll also have been hoping Erling Haaland’s treble-winning celebrations and a possible post-season dip from Martin Odegaard might just take the edge off Norway in Oslo on Saturday night.
Assessing the task ahead for Steve Clarke’s men, it is impossible to look beyond the two standout prodigious talents in the Norway squad. Both have been teen sensations. Both have developed into world-class players, who this season have starred in the Premier League title race.
Haaland, with his record-breaking 36-goal haul, of course came out on top. But Odegaard captained Arsenal to an extremely impressive campaign of their own. He wears the armband for his country, too, and will make his 50th appearance for his nation this weekend.
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For Haaland – if the hangover has worn off – there is the chance to continue his remarkable scoring streak on the international stage, where he has 21 goals in 23 games. Norway could certainly do with a few of his trademark strikes, with a win almost a must if they are to get on track for a place in the tournament next summer. They took just one point from their first two games when their striker was out injured.
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Scotland defender Jack Hendry looks ahead to the prospect of facing striker Erling Haaland and his Norway team-mates in their Euro 2024 qualifier on Saturday.
The importance of these two Norway stars on the national team is obvious – but their paths at this level have been contrasting.
Former Norway boss Lars Lagerback knows their intriguing stories well.
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He was the man to hand Haaland his international debut – and then watched in awe as he hit six goals in his first half-dozen matches, including a hat-trick on just his sixth appearance for his country against Romania.
“He’s fantastic,” Lagerback – also a former Sweden boss and the man who led Iceland to the Euros quarter-finals and that famous win over England – tells Sky Sports.
“I have been privileged to have some fantastic players through the years, but I never experienced… he was 19 when I took him in the first time. You can compare him with Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Henrik Larsson or whoever you like, but at this age, they were far away from being on his level.
“He’s in all respect, unique, I think.”
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Scotland assistant John Carver hopes Norway striker Erling Haaland is not taking advantage of the warm weather training ahead of Saturday’s Euro 2024 qualifier in Norway.
Haaland was at Red Bull Salzburg when he got the call to join the senior ranks of his country.
After bursting onto the scene at Molde in his homeland, his switch to Austria saw him continue to build momentum and soon after his debut for Norway he transferred to Borussia Dortmund to continue his rapid development.
As well as his talent, it is the smart management of his progress which has impressed Lagerback – the significant steps which have lifted him up to European dominance with Man City.
“He was a special player when he came in the national team for the first time. But if you had asked me then that he should have scored over 30 goals in his first season in Premier League…wow!
“But he was very smart and I think this is something to learn for other players if you go too quickly to high levels – because he was very smart in his way of choosing clubs.”
Odegaard’s transition through the early seasons of his career was not quite as straightforward. Wanted across Europe as a youth player, the hype around him was off the scale. He became Norway’s youngest-ever player at 15 and signed for Real Madrid at 16.
At the Spanish giants he struggled to find a way into the first-team squad and a series of loans followed, with spells at Heerenveen, Vitesse, Real Sociedad and Arsenal following before he began to realise his potential in north London.
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Take a look at all of Martin Odegaard’s goals in the 2022-23 Premier League season so far.
There had been 18 months with no senior call-ups during that tough time, with Lagerback eventually reinstating Odegaard to the group in November 2017, after he began to find his feet during those loan deals to the Eredivisie.
As Odegaard now prepares for his half-century of national team appearances, Lagerback says that early period of his career demonstrated the midfielder’s mental toughness which has eventually, perhaps inevitably, taken him to the top of the game.
“With Erling it was not a problem,” says Lagerback about the pair adapting to international football. “When he was 19, it was so special. With Martin because he had made his debut when he was 15, when I came, he had problems then because he was in Real Madrid, he was training in the second team… then he was loaned out a couple of times for two seasons, two different clubs in Holland.
“So I thought it was better for him then to play with the U21s. He wasn’t with me the first year. But then the second spell, when he came to Holland then he found a coach [who suited him] and got a central part in the team. So then I brought him back to the national team.
“But that was mainly because he didn’t play much and it was a lot of problems around this lending out and everything. But his personality was 100 per cent. I mean, Martin, with all this lending out and going so early to Madrid, his mental strengths… I am so impressed that he went through all this and finally found a good way in and now being with [Arsenal manager] Mikel Arteta and the way they play suits him perfectly.
“But you need the mental strengths. And these are two guys who really have it.
“They loved to train, there was no problem coaching them in any way, they really want to do well in all respects, both as individuals, but also for the team.”
Delivering Norway to a first major tournament since 2000 is the next target for Haaland and Odegaard. For all the caveats about their form heading into Saturday, Scotland will have to be wary of these Scandinavian stars out to upset their strong start to this campaign.
Follow Norway vs Scotland with Sky Sports’ live blog on the website and App on Saturday, kick-off 5pm.
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