Norway boss Stale Solbakken maintains the World Cup quarter-final with England in Miami (10pm Irish time) is not just going to be a straight shoot-out between Erling Haaland and Harry Kane.
Manchester City frontman Haaland and England captain Kane are each in the running for the Golden Boot, but one of them will be heading home when the final whistle blows at the Hard Rock Stadium late tonight.
The goalscoring exploits of both men have captured the headlines, with Haaland's clinical double having sunk Brazil in East Rutherford and Bayern Munich forward Kane scoring a match-winning penalty as Thomas Tuchel’s side battled past co-hosts Mexico at the Estadio Azteca when down to 10 men following on from his crucial brace in the 2-1 comeback win over DR Congo.
Solbakken, though, insists there must be a collective focus if his side are to progress to the World Cup semi-finals for the first time and end England’s own dreams of a repeat of 1966.
"I think it’s Norway versus England, but I don’t think it is a secret that Kane is the match-winner number one for England and Haaland is match-winner number one for us," Solbakken said at a press conference.
On Haaland’s mindset, whether he was "hungry for goals", Solbakken added:
"To be honest, that hunger is not that big when training. When he trains, when he participates, he is hungry for goals, but on a couple of those training sessions, he hasn’t been all that hungry. I have to be honest."
Just as he feels England should not only look to shackle Haaland, Solbakken knows full well there are plenty of other dangermen in Tuchel’s squad.
"They are a team that plays up to their strength, like we are ourselves, in the whole tournament," he said.
"Obviously, when you meet a team like England, who has great players on the wings, (Jude) Bellingham, Kane, they can score from many positions.
"(They have) a great duo in the middle of the park, we need to compete there and we need to defend properly.
"But the most important thing for me is that we are ourselves with the ball, and that we are there to play the game and not the whole environment, that we concentrate on the pitch and that we can be ourselves and play our playing style."
Norway have been managing an illness bug in the camp, with defender Marcus Holmgren Pedersen having missed the Brazil game, but has returned to training. Wolves left-back David Moller Wolfe is being monitored after being forced off in the closing stages at the MetLife Stadium with an unspecified issue.
Solbakken feels there is a "great balance" within the group as Norway look to extend their own World Cup dream.
"I think every game in this World Cup has been the most important and the greatest for Norwegian football, especially after we went into the knockout round, so this is the third most important game," he said.
"I feel that the players are in a relaxed, but competitive mood, so I think it is a great balance they have.
"They are looking forward to the games, but of course they should also feel the pressure because I don’t think that you could be at your very best if you don’t feel a little bit pressure.
"But I think they have a very good mix of looking forward to it and and feeling the pressure a little bit."
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Source: RTE
