FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Norway striker Erling Haaland and nine of the team's other regular starters needed rest more than a first-place finish in their World Cup group.
“It’s a no-brainer," coach Ståle Solbakken said Friday after a 4-1 loss to France left the Norwegians in second place in the group. "The fans around Norway and also in the arena would have liked to see Erling. But that is not really the issue. We want to proceed as long as we can in the tournament.”
Already in the knockout round but with a chance to win the group with a victory over France on Friday, Solbakken decided to rest 10 of the players who started the previous game. France, which won the World Cup in 2018 and lost in the final four years ago, took a 3-1 lead on Ousmane Dembélé's first-half hat trick, and earned a round of 32 matchup with a third-place team.
“I would lie if I said that I wasn’t a little bit surprised, for sure,” France defender Jules Koundé said. “No matter which player we have in front of us, we are always trying to do our best and win. We wanted to finish first on the table and that’s what we did, so pretty happy about it.”
Norway would have needed to beat France to win the group because they trailed on goal difference heading into the match. Instead, Norway will next face the Ivory Coast, also second-place finisher, on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.
Solbakken said the team's short break after Monday's victory over Senegal convinced him it was more important to rest his regulars than go for the victory. Among the changes, Egil Selvik was in goal in place of Orjan Nyland against France's regular lineup.
“I think it’s smart,” midfielder Patrick Berg said. “It’s hopefully for us a long tournament. So being able to rest somebody and at the same time give somebody — who has been here for some weeks now, training really hard — give them the opportunity to perform against one of the best teams, I think it was a win-win situation for us.”
Haaland, a Manchester City forward who has been the Premier League's leading scorer three of the last four seasons, entered the day with four World Cup goals, tied for second with Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior and France’s Kylian Mbappé, and trailing only Argentina's Lionel Messi.
But Norwegian fans who spent thousands to travel to the United States and even more for their match tickets were deprived of seeing one of the World Cup's star attractions.
“I feel this consideration,” Solbakken said. “But we have given them a couple of victories, and we are giving them an opportunity to watch more games ... We are here to proceed as long as we can. And I need to make decisions to proceed as long as possible.”
___
See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here
