Norway Outlasts Ivory Coast in Knockout Battle
- Philip Fox
- Jul 2
- 3 min read
Credit Opta Analyst
NATIONAL SOCCER NEWS: www.nationalsoccernetwork.com
Norway and Ivory Coast met together on June 30th in the Round of 32 in Arlington, Texas!
The Vikings from Norway blew through Group I with comfort, as long as you didn’t look at the “rest” game against France, where they decided to prepare for the knockout round instead of fighting full force. The Ivory Coast also finished second in their group with two wins against Ecuador and Curacao. This was the first World Cup tournament in which Ivory Coast advanced past the group stages. Norway had previously progressed to the Round of 16 in both 1938 and 1998.
The Norwegians started a full-strength eleven for this knockout battle. Norway started in a 4-3-3 formation. The starting goalkeeper was Ørjan Nyland. The four defenders were Marcus Holmgren Pedersen at right back, Kristoffer Ajer and Torbjørn Heggem as the center back duo, and David Møller Wolfe at left back. Martin Ødegaard (Captain), Sander Berge, and Patrick Berg took charge of the midfield, while Alexander Sørloth at right wing, Erling Haaland at striker, and Antonio Nusa at left wing took care of the attacking front. Manager Ståle Solbakken led Norway.
The Ivory Coast also lined up in a 4-3-3 formation with Yahia Fofana in goal. The defensive four were Guéla Doué at right back, Emmanuel Agbadou and Odilon Kossounou at center back, and Ghislain Konan at left back. The three midfielders were Ibrahim Sangaré, Franck Kessié (Captain), and Christ Inao Oulaï. The attack was led by Yan Diomandé at left wing, Nicolas Pépé at striker, and Ange-Yoan Bonny on the right wing.
The two teams fought hard back and forth for the first 35 minutes, but it was Norway who threw the first punch. In the 39th minute, captain Ødegaard made a perfect pass to the left side of the box where Nusa was waiting. Nusa took one touch onto his right foot and bent the ball into the far right of the net, where Fofana had no chance to save it.
The first half ended with Norway possessing the ball 56% of the time. Norway took a total of six shots. Two of them were on target, while similarities commenced with the Ivory Coast. The Ivory Coast took five total shots, with only one on target. The Ivory Coast had a total of 20 touches in the opposition box, giving them a much higher chance to score compared to Norway's ten touches in the Ivory Coast's box.
The second half started just like the first with strong punches from both sides but no one scored. That was until the 74th minute when the Ivory Coast found an equalizer. Diallo looked more like a professional dancer than a football player as he sent a perfect one-two pass to Pepe, who touched it back to Diallo, who glided past Wolfe and Berge and bent his shot into the net. The game was now level 1-1 with only 15 minutes left on the clock.
However, Norway would only need 10 minutes before super scorer Haaland found the back of the net for his 5th goal of the tournament. Central midfielder Patrick Berg made a perfect run for a pass from Bobb. Berg then slid the ball through the box and three defenders where Haaland was waiting patiently for the simple tap-in.
The rest of the half consisted of the Ivory Coast pushing for a late dramatic equalizer to no avail. The game ended with Norway possessing 53% of the ball, taking only nine shots, four of them on target, while the Ivory Coast took a total of 14 shots with five of them on target.
The Vikings headed back to East Rutherford, New Jersey, as they prepared to take on Brazil. The last time that Brazil and Norway clashed was in the 1998 edition of the World Cup, where Norway took the 2-1 win.
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