Five years ago, Norway were eliminated from the European Championship without scoring a goal in three matches. On a sultry, supremely easy Southampton evening, Martin Sjogren’s side beat that total within 10 minutes and virtually killed off the contest several minutes later. With Ada Hegerberg and Caroline Graham Hansen as a strike partnership, they need not worry about goals this time. The defence? That’s a slightly more complicated question.
There has been fairly little mention of Norway as potential winners of this tournament. There are multiple explanations for that: being paired with hosts England does tend to make you one of the other teams; Norway have lost to lower-ranked Italy and Portugal this year (albeit with an experimental formation); there is just so much competition at Euro 2022. But on this evidence, they will trouble England greatly.
This was roughly a foregone conclusion, at least from the moment of Norway’s first goal. These two teams have recent history and it has not been tinged with Northern Ireland green. They met in qualifying for this tournament – Norway won both games 6-0 and that was without Hegerberg.
Julie Nelson will always be the first player from Northern Ireland to score at a major women’s international tournament. The expectations of Kenny Shiels’ side can probably be epitomised by their joyous reaction to their consolation goal.
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But then why not? One of the necessities when watching – and covering – this tournament is to appreciate the disparate contexts in which squads operate. Not only are Northern Ireland the lowest-ranked team this summer, they also only turned professional last year. Shiels believes that this tournament has come one cycle too early for his players, but, again, so what? That only makes it more important to source joy and valuable experience where they can.
After the sell-out at Old Trafford on Wednesday, this was a far less impressive attendance. It raises potential questions about Uefa’s ticketing policy for the tournament.
Days before the game, only a handful of tickets in the cheapest category were available through the official portal, and fewer than a few hundred in total. The attendance was under 9,200. How can it be that anyone intending to purchase late would have been turned off by greyed out blocks that were clearly not sold out?
For all their first-half dominance, Norway may rue not extending their margin of victory after the 31st minute. It is hardly unthinkable that they draw with England in their second match, leaving top spot in Group A decided by goal difference. England would go into their final group game – against Northern Ireland – motivated towards ruthlessness. Tournaments can shift on such details.
There is another way of course – Norway can beat England. They will have watched the opening-night nerves in Manchester. They will have witnessed how Sarina Wiegman’s team can be hassled and harried and can be guilty of their own profligacy. They are happy being considered as relative outsiders and they would delight in being party-poopers too.
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