Louis van Gaal (70) describes the Norway settlement as a “battle of destiny”, says that they are not good at playing a draw – and does not like that Ståle Solbakken’s men are on the firing line for the group victory and World Cup finals.
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If the Netherlands beat Montenegro and Norway does the job against Latvia, everything is ready for a clean group final in Rotterdam on 16 November. The winner goes straight to the World Cup in Qatar 2022.
“Norway continues to push” Orange “in the World Cup qualifiers”, writes General Newspaper about the decisive battles. The Telegraph describes it all as a «climax», while Football International believes the Netherlands must take care of “passionate Norway”.
They point to the violent goal celebration after Mohamed Elyounoussi’s 2-0 scoring against Montenegro and that Stefan Strandberg describes national team manager Ståle Solbakken as «Klin gal».
Another person who is crazy – at least in name – is the Dutch coach, Louis van Gaal. The 70-year-old is a ring fox in football, and is in his third period as national team manager. Van Gaal has experienced most things, but admits that the situation is far from ideal before the “battle of destiny”.
– I do not think they will catch up with us on goal difference, and we have taken care of that ourselves. That’s a big advantage. But then everything depends on the battle of fate at home against Norway. And we Dutch are not that good at playing a draw. I hope it will not be like that, he says The Telegraph.
This is the status of Norway’s group before the last two matches:
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Source: sofascore.com
The Netherlands is a proud football nation, but failed to qualify for the previous World Cup. It will not happen again, and van Gaal expects loud support from the public when Norway comes to visit.
– We will not take the first match against Montenegro lightly. But until the last match we will play here, in front of a packed stadium and the atmosphere will be as fantastic as tonight, says the coach after their 6-0 victory over Gibraltar.
Should Norway lose or play a draw against the Netherlands, it could still be a World Cup final – a bit depending on how Turkey does in its last two matches.
The group runner must go through a demanding replay to get a World Cup place. It will happen in March next year. Then twelve teams make up the playoff pot: The ten group runners-up from the European qualifiers – plus the UEFA innovation Nations League, the one that was played in the autumn of last year, will cross its way into the World Cup playoffs.
Norway did not get this extra ticket into the playoffs and must thus be number two in the group to get there. Championship-winning nations such as Switzerland, Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic, among others, are probably waiting here. Of these twelve teams, there is room for only three in the World Cup.
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