Norway at Spain in EURO 2004 qualifying match

soccerbob · Nov 10, 2003

I just got a look at the rosters for both squads for the first leg in Valencia's Mestella Stadium on Saturday. I like Spain a lot in this game for several reasons.

The Norway team is quite fortunate to even be here. Romania were a better side and it took a 1-0 win over Luxembourg for Norway to be here. They scored only 9 goals in 8 qualifying games and only 3 on the road. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is injured and John Carew has been left off the side. Norway have six players from the Rosenborg team and watching that club play is like watching paint dry. They won't score in this game.

Spain come in with a full squad and will pressure this Norway team from the opening whistle. Spain won't let up as they want to get a margin here before the second leg in Oslo on the following Wednesday. They don't want to leave anything to chance for that second leg which could be tricky seeing as the chances of poor weather and a sub par playing surface could come into play. Spain also have six players sitting on yellow cards so I see a strong home effort and a three goal victory for Spain.

Spain have only themselves to blame for letting Greece win the group and therefore having to play these two games so I think their full efforts will show in a solid performance.

Spain -1 1/2 -103

GreenDoberman · Nov 11, 2003

Soccerbob,
-1 1/2 and minus, that is a steep price indeed for a game of this magnitude. Not saying Spain isn't the play, but hard to see the value in it. I haven't decided on a side or to pass, but your info certainly helps.

chriscol · Nov 11, 2003

i completely agree here. Spain -1.5 is the play.
and -103 is still good value,cause it should be a winner.

jofl · Nov 11, 2003

"Norway have six players from the Rosenborg team and watching that club play is like watching paint dry."

Obviously you don't get to see Rosenborg very often in Las Vegas. If you had said that watching the norwegian national team is like watching paint dry I would agree. Rosenborg is playing a completely different style than the national team. They play 4-3-3 system and keep the ball on the floor. The difference in the two styles is actually a big part of the problem for the national team. Noen of the Rosenborg players seem to perform up to their usual standard when playing for Norway. As for the mood in Norway, most people wont be very disappointed if we fail to qualify. We have played terrible football lately and it would be a shame if Norway took a place in the finals instead of a very good spanish side. I doubt Norway will score in Spain but wont be surprised if they manage 0-0 or a narrow 0-1 defeat.

JackDee · Nov 12, 2003

some very interesting thoughts here.

i too feel spain is the play here, with good value, besides the football part of this qualification match up, there are plenty more financial reasons of why it's imperative for uefa and the portuguese organisers that spain go through to the finals, been waiting a long time for the lines to come out for this one, and i ll be unloading a fair amount of cash on spain in this spot.