On a day of pro-Palestine demonstrations, high security and skirmishes in Oslo, Norway run out convincing victors
A hot potato of an occasion passed with minor blemishes off the pitch. Erling Haaland stole the attention with a hat-trick on it, rendering his early double penalty miss a distant memory, and the upshot was that Norway could look with clear heads toward a near-certain first World Cup appearance in 27 years. A win over Estonia next month will confirm their presence; Egil Olsen, their manager at France 1998, looked on as Israel offered scant opposition to Europe’s most ruthless attacking force.
Israel’s very presence in Oslo had been highly contested, the buildup framed by the Norwegian Football Federation’s public stance that they should be banned from international football due to the war in Gaza. There will be relief that confrontations were kept to a minimum beyond a brief spate of trouble outside the Ullevaal Stadion during half-time.
Continue reading…On a day of pro-Palestine demonstrations, high security and skirmishes in Oslo, Norway run out convincing victorsA hot potato of an occasion passed with minor blemishes off the pitch. Erling Haaland stole the attention with a hat-trick on it, rendering his early double penalty miss a distant memory, and the upshot was that Norway could look with clear heads toward a near-certain first World Cup appearance in 27 years. A win over Estonia next month will confirm their presence; Egil Olsen, their manager at France 1998, looked on as Israel offered scant opposition to Europe’s most ruthless attacking force.Israel’s very presence in Oslo had been highly contested, the buildup framed by the Norwegian Football Federation’s public stance that they should be banned from international football due to the war in Gaza. There will be relief that confrontations were kept to a minimum beyond a brief spate of trouble outside the Ullevaal Stadion during half-time. Continue reading…
