The last time we saw Norway at a European Championship, they were traipsing off a pitch in the small Dutch city of Deventer, consigned to a disastrous early exit by a 1-0 defeat to Denmark that rounded off a rancid group stage campaign in which they had failed to score a goal, let alone muster a point.
From the moment the draw for this summer’s edition was made, they seemed unlikely to face a similar issue and so it proved as, having put 12 past Northern Ireland unanswered across two games in qualifying, they hammered the major tournament debutants 4-1 to get their campaign off to a winning start.
The five years since Euro 2017 have been turbulent for Norwegian football, most notably because of the self-imposed exile of superstar Ada Hegerberg, which began months after their group stage debacle and only ended in April. With Hegerberg back, Martin Sjorgen’s team arrive in England in that rather amusing, but always occupied position of being just about everybody’s dark horses and therefore hardly deserving of the tag.
Context is necessary; Northern Ireland are the lowest ranked team at this tournament, below Chinese Taipei and Vietnam, and just above Myanmar and Papua New Guinea. Many of their squad still play only part-time and Julie Nelson’s goal shortly after the break marked a genuinely historic moment, a first at a major tournament for a country whose senior women’s team was effectively disbanded for a period only 20 years ago.
But for all sterner tests lie ahead, namely against England at the Amex Stadium next Monday, this was an impressive start from a Norway side who showed none of the opening night jitters that threatened to spoil the hosts’ party against Austria at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
Hegerberg’s major tournament return led the pre-match billing, but she was largely upstaged by the brilliant Caroline Graham Hansen, the gulf between the sides never more apparent than when the Barcelona forward was in full flight, while Arsenal’s Frida Maanum dominated from the base of midfield and also got on the scoresheet.
Norway were helped in the first-half by Northern Ireland rather shooting themselves in the foot, Chloe McCarron caught in possession on the edge of her own box to allow Hegerberg and Maanum to combine for a second within three minutes of Julie Blakstad’s opener, before Nadene Caldwell’s needless handball allowed Graham Hansen to make it three from the spot before the break.
It could have been uglier, too, had it not been for magnificent last-ditch blocks on Hegerberg from first Sarah McFadden and then Abbie Magee, but Nelson’s header in the midst of a resurgence immediately after the break gave a strong travelling contingent the moment they came for, creeping over the line before Guro Pettersen could claw it back.
No matter what the result, no one can take this moment away from Julie Nelson!
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 7, 2022
Live: https://t.co/IRdnryIjA9#BBCFootball #BBCEuros pic.twitter.com/Od4uG7zboj
Norway, too, came with a sizeable support and quickly restored the three-goal cushion as Chelsea’s Guro Reiten curled home a 54th-minute free-kick. Jacqueline Burns, otherwise solid in the Northern Ireland goal, was perhaps culpable, but seemed understandably concerned by the prospect of a Graham Hansen strike into the opposite corner and was left wrong-footed. She made amends with a smart save to keep out substitute Karina Saevik, after Hegerberg had been denied again, this time by the offside flag.
After the record-breaking crowd at Old Trafford for England’s opener, an attendance of 9,146 here was a touch disappointing, with almost 11,000 tickets sold for a match that had both a home nation and two of the best players in the world as draws. Still, the atmosphere generated inside a ground less than a third full bodes well, given where numerous games through the group stage will inevitably be played in similar conditions.
Tickets for Norway’s third, against Austria at the Amex, remain available. On this form, they are certainly worth watching.
