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Can Austria return the favor to Erling Haaland and his Norwegians?

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Can Austria get revenge against Norway for their defeat in September? The Rangnick team will have to get a grip on super striker Erling Haaland in particular. We'll be reporting live - see ticker below. 

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Austria's national soccer team will not be up against a favorite opponent in Linz on Sunday (8:45 pm). The ÖFB team have only won one of their last six games against Norway - four years ago in an empty stadium in Oslo with a 2:1 win due to corona. A month ago, they lost 2:1 in front of a full crowd after a goal from star striker Erling Haaland, which put the Austrians under pressure in the Nations League.

The ÖFB team's last home win against Norway was 45 years ago. On 29 August 1979, the Austrians triumphed 4-0 in front of 40,000 spectators in Vienna thanks to goals from Kurt Jara, Herbert Prohaska, Willy Kreuz and Hans Krankl. Since then, there have been three defeats, two draws and the one win in 2020 in six matches against the Norwegians. However, because the first seven matches up to 1979 were all won, the overall balance from the ÖFB's point of view is still clearly positive: eight wins in 13 international matches.

Norway are number 47 in the FIFA world rankings, 25 places behind Austria, and have not qualified for a major tournament since the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship. Given the current generation of players, however, it seems only a matter of time before this dry spell comes to an end.

Who will stop Haaland?
However, the "Landslaget" will have to do without two hopefuls in Linz: Captain Martin Ödegaard, a key player for England's runners-up Arsenal, is unavailable due to the ankle injury he suffered in the first leg against the ÖFB team in a duel with Christoph Baumgartner. Manchester City's attacking whirlwind Oscar Bobb, who broke his leg in August, is also missing.

However, his club colleague Haaland can usually be relied upon in the national team. The 24-year-old has scored 34 goals in 36 international matches so far. With his brace on Friday in Oslo against Slovenia (3:0), he surpassed Norway's previous record goalscorer Jörgen Juve, who scored 33 international goals in the interwar period. Haaland has scored in both of his previous appearances against the ÖFB team. He scored his first international goal in the 2-1 home defeat in 2020.

It will be Haaland's first match in Austria since 10 December 2019, when the shooting star bowed out of the Champions League with Salzburg in a 2-0 home defeat against Liverpool. A few days later, the then 19-year-old became the only foreign legionnaire to be voted Austria's "Footballer of the Year" since 2009. Haaland left for Borussia Dortmund during the winter break, only to rejoin Manchester City in the summer of 2022 with a release clause.