– Irrelevant, says Solbakken – VG

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Including the brutal defeat to Serbia in Ullevaal, Solbakken led Norway in 20 games. He has led to eleven wins, four draws and five defeats.

Åge Hareide, Nils Johan Semb, Drillo (in his second term) and Lars Lagerbäck all had better “point averages” than Solbakken at the same stage in their national team manager roles.

– At what point is Solbakken’s project after 20 games?

– Until you get out of the decisive games not won, it will be the same story again. It will just be “almost”. They have to take a new approach. It’s a bit scary that Norway have a much tougher path in EC qualifiers with two tougher teams. There are difficult games to play, replies Åge Hareide.

Here you can read why the 0-2 defeat to Serbia could be costly.

He got off to a great start as a national team manager 18 years ago and gave his all-time best in his first 20 games. But there is reason to note that the Nations League was not introduced and Norway played many private international matches in the first year of Hareide.

But Norway lost only one of their top 20. In match number 21, the Hareide national team played 0-0 against future world champion Italy in Ullevaal in 2005.

A result that Ståle Solbakken would take with both hands on Tuesday night. A goalless performance on Tuesday night would have given Norway a group win, promotion to the Nations League, an extra opportunity to qualify for the 2024 European Championship and, last but not least, seeded Norway in the second tier of the draw. of the European Championship on 9 October.

– No, so 20 games are really completely irrelevant. It’s about getting to the playoffs. If you have two points more or less than another manager in another era, it’s completely meaningless, says Ståle Solbakken.

The national team coach talked to VG on Wednesday, after a night with little sleep and Norway – Serbia on record.

– How would you summarize your first 20 games?

– I think we are a much better team now than when we started. It is one hundred percent safe. We have beaten Serbia once and Sweden twice. It is the only time since 2015, when we beat Croatia with Høgmo, that we have beaten nations at that level. Prove that we have taken action. We will be number two in this group and we were seeded number three. We are close, and in the last game we get a final, but then we didn’t take the last step. The whole goal of this project was the EC in Germany 2024 and we still have great faith in that.

– We’re in a good place, but we could be in an even better place. I think both players, managers and coaches have a good feeling. We know where we are going, we know where we are and we clearly have something to do.

Ståle Solbakken has Per-Mathis Høgmo and Egil Olsen behind him on VG’s list. It must be remembered that Drillo’s adventure really took off in his match number 20. 10-0 over San Marino in 1992 began the fantastic qualification for the World Cup when Norway fielded great nations such as Holland, England, Turkey and Poland after being the fifth seeded in the draw.

In next year’s EC Qualifiers, Solbakken’s team will be forced to repeat some of the level three feats.

– It’s the same old lesson repeating itself. It seems that you don’t understand when there are decisive situations and games. It has been going on for more than 20 years, says Åge Hareide, who was unable to lead Norway to the championship. He stopped in the WC playoffs in 2006.

– Do you recognize him?

– Sure. We cannot raise the level of our players collectively and we are defeated by an intelligent Serbia. They have good individual players, they are more confident on the ball, while we have passing errors and we lose the ball in the center of the field before the second goal

– We are overwhelmed by more skilled players in the middle of the pitch with Serbia. Especially when it comes to passing security. It was absolutely fundamental. They combined in a completely different way than what we have been able to do. That, wisdom, experience and routine, says Hareide.

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