Christian Thorstedt, who had a surprising opportunity as a striker against Turkey, equalized before the end of the first half. It’s 1-1 after the first 45 minutes in Turkey.
Istanbul, Turkey (Nettavisen): Follow the match in the live broadcast center below!
Ståle Solbakken had to make several changes to the squad from the last match as a result of countless injuries. He attracted attention when the first 11 came in at 19.30.
Solbakken chose to sit on the bench for Viking player Veton Berisha. There has been long talk that he will play as a striker for Norway in the Battle of Destiny because Erling Braut Haaland, Alexander Sorloth and Joshua King are all unavailable due to injuries. Instead Solbakken opted to surprise and start with Christian Thorstvedt as a striker.
Thorstvedt usually plays the offensive midfield for the Genk club. He played seven international matches and scored two goals for Norway.
Football expert Joachim Johnson was not generous when he served the team at VGTV studio.
– Ståle puts his head on the guillotine. This international match is vital, a match that Norway cannot lose. I am surprised by the choice. When the team came out, Johnson said Thorstvedt is hard work, but he doesn’t have the same hesitation as Berisha at the press match.
“We’ve tried it before (with a midfielder as a striker), when we did it in Hungary,” said Kjetel Ryckdal, referring to the first leg against Hungary in the 2015 European Championship qualifiers, when Marcus Henriksen started as a striker.
– Perhaps Berisha is suffering from something, we never know everything. I was expecting Thorstvedt to play, so the surprise for me is that Thorstvedt starts as a striker.
This is how Norway (4-3-3) started, according to UEFAOfficial pages: Organ Huskgold Nieland – Marcus Holmgren Pedersen, Stefan Strandberg, Andreas Hansch Olsen, Berger Melling – Martin Odegaard, Patrick Berg, Morten Thorsby – Jens Peter Hogg, Christian Thorstedt and Muhammed Al-Yunusi.
Også Tyrkia command en 4-3-3: Ugurcan Cakir – Zeki Celik, Merih Demiral, Serdar Aziz, Caner Erkin – Berat Özdemir, Ozan Tufan, Kerem Aktürkoglu – Cengiz Ünder, Burak Yilmaz, Hakan Çalhanoglu.
To have a real hope of winning the group, Norway must win at Sükrü Sakarcoglu Stadium. The Netherlands meets Latvia on the same day and Gibraltar on Monday.
In November, the Netherlands will travel to Montenegro three days before their last match against Norway.
The winner of the group reaches the World Cup finals in Qatar. The second-placed team gets a second chance at replay against two other teams or group winners from the previous National League. Then you must win two matches to get a place in the World Cup.
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