Martin Odegaard said that Norway's game plan had helped him rediscover his best shape after they remained perfect in the qualification of 2026 World Cup with a 4-2 victory over Israel.
After Norway started their group with a pounding 5-0 victory in Moldova, Norway was quite running in the neutral soil in Hungary.
Odegaard registered three assists – one for David Moller Wolfe, Alexander Sorloth and Erling Haaland – while Kristoffer Ajer also hit the Stale Solbakken team.
Norway tried 23 shots with a total value of 4.22 expected goals (XG). Only the Czech Republic (4.23 XG versus Gibraltar, also on Tuesday) have registered a higher total in every match in this young UEFA qualifying campaign.
Odegaard created eight opportunities for his teammates with an expected assistes (XA) value of 1.08 -the best statistics of each player in one game in these qualifications.
“We have a lot of confidence in what we do. We have developed a very good game plan,” Odegaard told the Norwegian newspaper VG.
“We have become much better offensive. We can score goals and make things in many different ways. Then I also got into mine more.”
2/2 See you in June! pic.twitter.com/PLGDT28Kgo
– Erling Haaland (@erlinghaaland) March 25, 2025
Although Odegaard has struggled this campaign for Arsenal, whereby only four Premier League assists are recorded, teammate Sorloth never had doubts about his quality.
Sorloth also believes that Norway has nothing to fear from their main group.
“He is fantastic. Three assists speak for themselves,” said Sorloth about Odegaard, before he focused his attention on that crucial meeting with the Azzurri.
“With the players we have, I think all teams respect us. It is up to us to take advantage of the team we have,” he added.
Norway are three points free from Estonia and Israel in the rankings, where Italy still has to play due to the obligations of their Nations League.
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