Norwegians downed by two goals from Spanish debutant

The Spaniards won their opening match of the 2024 European Championship qualifiers, beating the Norwegians 3-0 at home without the injured Erling Haaland. The debutant Joselu scored twice and Dani Olmo scored once.

The Spaniards started classically by dominating the ball, but it took them a while to open up their opponents. But in the 13th minute, Alejandro Balde’s shot was crossed by Dani Olmo and the visitors’ goalkeeper had no chance to react.

Immediately afterwards, the home side made a mistake and Martin Odegaard had a great opportunity, but Nacho Fernandez blocked his shot. Fredrik Aursnes could have equalised in the 29th minute but Kepa Arrizabalaga made an excellent save.

The Norwegians were the better side from the 20th minute onwards, with the home side only getting angry from Mikel Merino’s kick. However, the Norwegians went into the booths with a 1: 0 scoreline due to inaccurate finishing.

After the change of sides, the Norwegians kept up the pace, and in the 58th minute the ball was cleared off the goal line by Kepa in a messy situation. The Spaniards were not helped by three substitutions, they played little with the ball by their standards and were not dangerous.

But the visitors clearly missed Erling Haaland, and Alexander Sörloth was seen more for offensive fouls than for shots. In the 76th minute, the Spaniards could have made the difference, but Yeremi Pino missed the target in a good position.

Four minutes later, the underdog of the match Sörloth failed on the other side, hitting the ball the wrong way from a volley. And he was very sorry. In the 84th minute, the centre found Jusela and he scored on his national team debut.

And a minute later, the same player added his second goal, this time celebrating from a tap-in. The ending was calm from both sides and the Spaniards celebrated a 3:0 win.

Source: Sport 1