Spain take on the visitors Norway in the round 1 match of UEFA Euro 2024 qualification. The match will be played on Saturday, March 25th at Estadio La Rosaleda (Málaga).
Spain has shown decent results under Luis Enrique. However, there were still questions about their football, which were overshadowed by their results. In Qatar, they started powerfully, crushing Keylor Navas and company 7-0. And even with Germany, missing a win and finishing 1-1, they achieved a strategically important draw. The first sign of trouble was their loss to Japan, which they attributed to low motivation, but this was followed by a 0-0 draw against Morocco in the Round of 16, a deja vu of their penalty shootout loss in 2018. After that, "Luis" left, and was replaced by De La Fuente, a coach without status but who had worked for 10 years with various Spanish youth teams. It is not surprising that he only called up two debutants, the prolific scorer Joselu and David Garcia, a defender from Osasuna. But at the same time, the squad was significantly changed compared to the one that was selected for the World Cup. One and a half dozen footballers were not called up, including Unai Simon, Alba, Azpilicueta, Koke, Fati, Ferran Torres, and the list goes on.
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Norway currently has several first-class stars at their disposal. First and foremost, there is Erling Haaland, who is breaking goal-scoring records at Manchester City, and Martin Odegaard, the captain of the current Premier League leaders. There are also other players from top divisions, from Nyland to Sorloth, and it is not surprising that such a team was expected to make progress for several cycles. But something was always missing. After a decent start to the previous qualification campaign, the Scandinavians ultimately allowed themselves to be overtaken not only by the Netherlands but also by Turkey. Last year, already in the Nations League, the "Tunnelers" earned 10 points in the first 4 matches. But then there was an unexpected loss to an outsider, Slovenia, and then, in the decisive match, they lost 0-2 at home to Serbia - who ultimately took first place in the group. Nevertheless, Stale Solbakken retained his post. And overall, the team is familiar enough, except for the excluded Matthias Normann from Moscow's "Dynamo" and Joshua King from "Fenerbahce", who did not recover from injury in time.
During Euro 2000, Norway played against Spain for the first time and won thanks to a goal by Iversen. After that "La Furia Roja" won three times, and only in 2019, the Scandinavians managed to draw their home qualifying match 1-1. It is important for both teams to show themselves, get in the mood for a new cycle. So we can expect a fairly bright game and a final "total over 2.5 goals".
Prediction for the match: Over 2.5 scored goals.
