Norway served after the European Championship exit – cheers from “Oranje” and Switzerland

Croatia hopes after Wales mistake

The final exit from the European Championships for Erling Haaland and his team caused great disillusionment in Norway. Due to Israel’s 2-1 defeat against Romania on Saturday, the team around Manchester City’s top striker no longer has a chance of taking part in the tournament in Germany in 2024. Ex-national player Jan Aage Fjörtoft said on Saturday evening via “X”: “Just for the record! It wasn’t Israel that destroyed our European Championship dream. We did it ourselves.”

The team has two of the best European footballers in Haaland (23 years old) and Arsenal’s Martin Ødegaard (24), but did not make it into the qualifying group against Spain and Scotland. The last hope of a ticket through the playoffs, which are made up of the Nations League tables, has now been dashed by other results. The game in Scotland this Sunday (8.45 p.m.) is meaningless for Norway. Haaland is sidelined due to a foot injury. There was initially no reaction from the top striker about the end of the European Championship on Saturday evening.

Former Hertha professional Kjetil Rekdal had already criticized the team with harsh words in October. Norway has fallen “behind countries like Finland, North Macedonia and Albania” and, according to the results, is “more on a par with San Marino, Liechtenstein or Andorra,” the now 55-year-old told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. Norway has only qualified for a European Championship in 2000. Rekdal said: “We are the HSV of Europe.” The former Bundesliga giant has been trying unsuccessfully to return to the top German league for years after relegation in 2018.

Another goalscorer, on the other hand, can still have hopes for the European Championship: Robert Lewandowski and the Poles have the opportunity to take part in Germany via the playoffs. The striker’s team from FC Barcelona no longer has a chance of one of the top two places in Group E, but has secured a playoff ticket via the Nations League.

While the Netherlands also secured their European Championship ticket with a 1-0 win on Saturday against Ireland as well as Switzerland (1-1 against Kosovo) and Romania (2-1 against Israel), Croatia can also continue to hope: the third place in the World Cup won 2-0 (2-0) in Latvia and is now second in the table after rivals Wales’ 1-1 mistake in Armenia.

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