Mini football figure - Norway

Norway

The Norwegian national football team is the men's national team of the Kingdom of Norway. The national coach since December 2020 is Ståle Solbakken. In December 2020, Norway was ranked 44th in the FIFA World Ranking.

History

The Norwegian Football Association (NFF) was founded in 1902 and joined FIFA in 1908 and UEFA in 1954. Until the 1990s, Norwegian football was more of a follower in international competition. Its greatest success was the bronze medal at the 1936 Olympic Games, defeating hosts Germany in the quarter-finals.

It was not until the qualification for the 1994 World Cup that the Norwegian national team first attracted attention. Although the team was in a qualifying group with England and the Netherlands, it managed to qualify for the finals ahead of schedule in a complete surprise. As a result of these good results, Norway was ranked number one in the FIFA World Ranking from 22 October to 19 November 1993, together with Brazil and Italy, and from 15 March to 19 April 1994, together with Germany and Brazil; for a total of 63 days. At the World Cup finals in the USA, Norway failed only because of the fewer goals scored in the preliminary round.

The Norwegians also qualified undefeated for the 1998 World Cup. This time, thanks to a 2-1 win over defending champions Brazil, they reached the last 16, where they were eliminated by Italy.

After two victories in 1997 and 1998, Norway (along with Hungary and the Netherlands) is one of the few countries to have a positive international match record against the Brazilian national team (two draws, two wins by Norway).

In 2000, Norway also took part in a European Championship finals for the first time. But despite an opening win against Spain, the team was eliminated in the preliminary round.

In both the qualifiers for the 2004 European Championship and the 2006 World Cup, Norway finished second in its group, losing both times in the play-offs. The Norwegians also finished second in Group 9 in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, but missed out on the play-offs as the worst runners-up in all groups.

The Scandinavians did not win a single match in 2008. The year 2009, on the other hand, began with a surprising 1-0 win in Düsseldorf against the reigning European vice-champions Germany.

In August 2010, Norway beat France 2-1, with Erik Huseklepp scoring twice. However, Norway only finished third in the qualifiers for the 2012 European Championship.

They also missed out on qualification for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. After eight matchdays, when a successful qualification seemed unlikely after a 2-0 defeat against Switzerland, they parted ways with coach Egil Olsen.

Per-Mathias Høgmo was subsequently hired as the new head coach. In the friendly match against the United Arab Emirates on 27 August 2014, Martin Ødegaard made his debut in the Norwegian senior national team at the age of 15, becoming Norway's youngest national player.

In the qualification for the Euro 2016 in France, the "Fotballandslaget" with numerous Bundesliga professionals reached the third place entitled to the play-off. However, both matches against Hungary were lost and the team missed out on its second participation in a European Championship final round.

Coach Høgmo's team got off to the worst possible start in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup: the only win from the first three matches came in a 4:1 defeat of San Marino, who scored their first away goal in a World Cup qualifying match in 15 years, after which the mood of the supporters in the country tilted against the team boss.

In October 2016, the Association of Norwegian Football Fans sent an open letter demanding Høgmo's dismissal, which was carried out by the association five days after a 2-1 defeat against the Czech Republic in November.

At that time, Scandinavian coaching legend Lars Lagerbäck was already being considered as a possible successor. The Swede surprisingly led Iceland to the quarter-finals at Euro 2016 and took over on 1 February 2017, when the team was in fifth and penultimate place in the World Cup qualifiers.

World Championships

Norway have participated in the World Cup finals three times so far, always facing Italy.

European Championships

Norway have taken part in all European Championship qualifiers, but have only qualified for the finals once so far. The team was eliminated in the first round in each of its first participations and then always finished bottom of the group. It was not until the qualification for the 1992 European Championship, when Rune Bratseth was a stabiliser in the defence, that the team finished third in the group for the first time. In 2000, the team qualified for the finals for the first time, and in the following years they always just missed out.