Norway and England meet in the World Cup quarterfinal on Saturday night, but ahead of the match Norway head coach Stale Solbakken is making England – not his own side – the favorites. In an interview with the BBC, he admitted that England would take the field as favorites. The last-eight match is due to be played at 3 a.m. Bangladesh time in Miami, with both teams chasing a place in the semifinals.
“England are the favorites, but they are not favorites by a very big margin,” Solbakken told the BBC. He struck the same note later at a news conference: “I think there is more pressure on England than on us. But we feel pressure about our own performance too. Once the game starts, the players no longer think about pressure.”
Norway reached the quarterfinals by beating five-time world champions Brazil in the round of 16, with a squad that includes Premier League stars such as Martin Odegaard and Erling Haaland. “Considering World Cup history, Brazil and England are probably the two biggest teams we could have faced,” the Norway coach said. The winner of the match will face the winner of the Argentina-Switzerland game in the semifinal in Atlanta next Wednesday.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report