Haaland A 23-year-old Manchester City striker suffered an injury during Thursday’s win over Faroe Islands.
Scotland, Spain and Norway have all qualified to compete in the finals next summer.
Clarke stated that it would be great for the fans to have seen a player with Haaland’s level.
It would have been a good idea for the defenders test themselves with a top-notch striker but he is not in shape.
If it were a match that meant something, I would probably sit here and say, “yeah. Glad he isn’t playing”. For the match tomorrow I would prefer if he was playing. “
According to the Norwegian Football Federation, Haaland’s ankle injury was “not severe” and that he played “a bit too soon” due to it.
Steve Clarke: Scotland Seeding – ‘It does not concern me’
After the team arrived in Glasgow, Norway’s coach Stale Solbakken said: “It is a huge blow to any team. But we have done it before, with some success and others without.
It’s unfortunate that we now have to deal with the fact that he received a minor knock last Thursday. His problem is with his foot movement, not an injury. Maybe he’s spoken with Man City. This is not a serious injury. “
Scotland is two points behind Group A leader Spain after beating Norway in Oslo. Spain will host Georgia this Sunday, while both the Scots & Norwegians are playing at Hampden.
Georgia twice led Scotland but ultimately ended up drawing 2-2 on Thursday in the penultimate qualifying match, while Spain defeated Cyprus. The results of Sunday will determine whether Scotland is in the two- or three-seeding pot for the final.
I haven’t thought about it [the issue of seeding pots]. This is not a concern to me. Clarke said, “The main goal was to get there.”
Pot two and pot three are just a guess because we don’t yet know the outcome of other games. We’ll play the game, do our best, and decide if we want to go into pot 2 or 3. “
News about Team
Scotland has no new injury worries after their draw with Georgia.
Billy Gilmour, Ryan Christie and the rest of the team played only 45 minutes at Tbilisi. Kenny McLean, a substitute for Scott McTominay, set up the first goal and Lawrence Shankland scored the second.
Norway has decided not to call up Haaland as a substitute. Haaland scored 27 goals across 29 appearances for the senior national team, including one in June against Scotland.
In addition to the Arsenal player Martin Odegaard and Sevilla goalkeeper Orjan Niyland, FC Copenhagen’s Birger Meling, as well as Villarreal striker Alexander Sorloth, there will be no visitors.
They said
Callum McGregor, Scotland’s midfielder: “Games are difficult. But if you start poorly, it makes them even harder. Play with aggressiveness, be intense and try to win back the ball.
There are so many subplots. If we have to jump straight into the second pot, then that will give us an extra hand for summer.
Erling Haaland, a player of the highest level is span id=”.gj7vv9h70o.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-27.0 “>”[ You should always test your skills against top players. We want to win, but if their top player or talisman is missing, it’s also good news. “
Stale Solbakken, Norway’s coach: “We have to congratulate Scotland for a fantastic campaign. They did really well. The players have played well. They deserve all the credit, but we’ll try again tomorrow.
I think that we are playing very close games and have a good balance. We have seen them do better in recent times at bringing small margins, and we need to find a way that we too can. “
Match stats
- Scotland has won its past two matches against Norway. They defeated them 1-0 during a friendly in 2013 and by 2-1 in an European Championship qualifying match earlier this year.
- It is Norway’s debut in Scotland after a scoreless draw during a World Cup qualifying match in 2008. Since losing to Scotland 3-2 at a European Championship qualifier in 1978, Norway has not lost in its last three games in Scotland.
- Scotland has only lost 2 of its 20 games at home in the past two years (W14 D4). However, one loss was against England during their most recent home match in September. Since September 2019, the Scots are yet to lose consecutive home matches.
- Norway has won five out of six games in the past (L1) and lost one 1-0 to Spain at home last month. These five wins were achieved with an overall score of 17-2.
- Since a winning streak of five games between March and September, Scotland has lost four consecutive matches in all competitions. The last time they went longer without winning was between March and November 2021 (5 games ).
- After beating Cyprus by 4-0 in a European qualifier away last month, Norway is looking for their first consecutive win away since November/October 2014 when they defeated Malta and Azerbaijan.
- Scott McTominay scored seven goals in 2023 for Scotland. Only Denis Law (11) in 1963 and Colin Stein (8) in 1969 have scored more goals for Scotland in one calendar year.
- After failing to score or assist in any of the first six times he represented Norway, Jorgen Sand Larsen has now scored two goals and provided two assists over his last four appearances for his nation, including scoring Norway’s opener against the Faroe Islands in their recent 2-0 victory.
