The Norwegian team had a solid performance and won the match. Norway explained the reason why Manchester City’s superstar stayed on the bench.
Erling Haaland, Norway’s biggest star.
Norway faced Jordan in a friendly match that kicked off the international break for Erling Haaland’s national team. The nordic team ended up winning 6-0, after a very solid performance of many players. Curious enough, their biggest star, Haaland, stayed on the bench and didn’t play any minutes in the whole game.
Haaland is having a great season with Manchester City. His team won the first 4 matches of the Premier League season and he’s the top goalscorer of the league so far, after he scored a hat-trick during the last weekend and reached a total of 6 goals in the tournament. He was of course called up by Norway as Haaland is the big star that could help his team qualify for the next Euro. Norway is currently in the 3rd position of their group and it doesn’t look like an easy job to reach the qualifying spots.
Norway played Jordan last Thursday in an international friendly. The European team managed by Stale Solbakken won the match without playing Erling Haaland as the star attacker. Premier League player Martin Odegaard did start the game for Norway, but Haaland didn’t have play minutes in the whole match. Antonio Nusa, Kristoffer Ajer, Jorgen Strand Larsen, Fredrik Bjorkan, Bard Finne and Hugo Vetlesen scored the 6 goals of the game.
Why did Haaland stay on the bench for Norway?
‘Manchester Evening News’ explained that Erling Haaland “was simply rested for Norway in Thursday’s win over Jordan ahead of a more important game next week”. Norway will face Georgia next Tuesday for an Euro Qualifiers match. “For that reason, Norway boss Stale Solbakken was never likely to risk Haaland in their friendly contest with Jordan on Thursday, citing Haaland’s workload for City as a good reason to give him an extra few days of rest before their crucial qualifier”, british media explained.