Nations League ticker

Norway v Austria – LIVE from 20:45

Can Austria take the lead?

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Austria's national soccer team will face Norway on Monday in what is, on paper, the most difficult match of this Nations League group stage. The match will be played in Oslo. We will be reporting live - see ticker below. The score is currently 1:1. 

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Here is the line-up:

The ÖFB team will face Norway in Oslo's Ullevaal Stadium and will therefore have to deal with attacking stars such as Erling Haaland and Martin Ödegaard. Both teams started with away draws on Friday and team boss Ralf Rangnick will be looking for a points haul after the 1-1 draw in Slovenia.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

The German expects a "completely different" game compared to the match in Ljubljana. In Slovenia's capital, the ÖFB team had to contend with a badly battered pitch and a deep-lying opponent. "This time we have a top pitch and an opponent who is looking for playful solutions themselves," explained the German at the final press conference in Oslo on Sunday. "We need a good balance of compact, aggressive play against the ball, while allowing as few balls as possible to Haaland. But we must also always have our own moments."

Haaland came away empty-handed in the 0-0 draw against the ultra-defensive Kazakhs, but Rangnick has great respect for the former Salzburg striker. Haaland has scored 31 goals in 34 international matches; in the English Premier League, the Manchester City marksman has recently been top scorer twice and is already on seven goals after three rounds.

"Haaland is the best striker"
"If you look at his statistics, you don't need to say much," Rangnick said of the 24-year-old. "Until a few months ago, I would have said he and Mbappe are the best strikers in the world. At the moment, I think Haaland is the best, but that's also because Kylian is not in absolute top form." He sees "hardly any weaknesses in Haaland. He is extremely quick and agile for such a tall player and has outstanding jumping ability," Rangnick emphasized.

Martin Ödegaard (l.), Erling Haaland (r.) and Co. will face Austria on September 9.

(Bild: AFP/APA/Jewel SAMAD)

However, the Kazakhs and their team boss and former Austria legionnaire Stanislav Cherchessov managed to largely take the big star out of the game. "It felt like he had three touches of the ball in the first half and four in the second," said Rangnick. "Our task is to allow him as few balls as possible. Then it's possible to keep a player like that in check."

"An exceptional player"
Marcel Sabitzer also shared this opinion. "Haaland is an exceptional player, but it's always good to compete with players like him. We have to prevent him from getting too many touches of the ball," said the Dortmund international, who is likely to move back to left wing-back in Norway as Christoph Baumgartner is expected to be in the starting eleven. Young father Philipp Lienhart could also slip into the starting line-up, but Maximilian Wöber and Phillipp Mwene are injured.