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Rest your best or go strong
Rest your best or go strong? Norway face questions as Haaland left out
It was billed as a World Cup Golden Boot showdown between France superstar Kylian Mbappe and Norway goal machine Erling Haaland.
In the end Haaland started on the bench and it quickly turned into the Ousmane Dembele show after the Ballon d'Or winner hit a stunning 25-minute first-half hat-trick as Les Bleus coasted to a 4-1 win at Boston Stadium.
While France went with an array of attacking talent they hope will fire them to World Cup glory in New Jersey on 19 July, Norway decided this final group game was the right time to exclude Manchester City forward Haaland from the starting XI for the first time since 2024.
It wasn't just Haaland though as Norway boss Stale Solbakken, with his side already through to the knockout stages, opted to make a whopping 10 changes.
"A no-brainer," he said when asked why he decided to rest so many.
"Both my part and from the physio, health and medical department, and from some of the players themselves.
"The only consideration was for the Norway fans. They would have wanted to see Erling and Martin [Odegaard] play.
We did a summary after the Senegal game and five or six players [were] very affected after 80 minutes. The entire defensive line and one or two midfielders.
As a result of the changes, Dembele filled his boots after Mbappe struck the underside of the crossbar inside the opening minute.
"If Erling Haaland needs a rest for the latter stages of the tournament he will take that," former England striker Ian Wright told ITV Sport before the game.
With Haaland, who had scored four goals in the previous two group games, sat on the bench, his deputy Jorgen Strand Larsen missed a penalty that would have made it 3-2 after half-time.
Haaland had already made his feelings clear about facing France after scoring two in a 3-2 win over Senegal on Tuesday.
"I couldn't care too much about that game now," he said after Norway qualified for the knockout stages.
They're probably going to win against us. They're probably going to win the whole tournament.
So was it a shrewd move by Norway to make so many changes - or the wrong decision?
France top Group I after making it three wins out of three.
While their reward for winning the group is a last-32 showdown at the nearby New York New Jersey Stadium on 30 June against the runners-up in Group F or G, Norway now face a 1,100-mile trip for their next game.
They are based in Greensboro, North Carolina, and will travel to Arlington, Texas to play Ivory Coast on the same day. They would have faced a trip half that distance had they topped the group.
Will a rested Norway team fancy their chances of making the last 16?
If they beat Ivory Coast they will then head to New Jersey for a last-16 tie on 5 July against the winners of Brazil-Japan.
"It is quite complicated," ex-Scotland winger Pat Nevin told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"The various distances you'll have to go, the massive distances you have to go if you lose this game, uproot your team and all that sort of stuff.
On the other hand, it's probably a good idea to make sure you just get through and that everyone is completely and utterly fit, that is probably at the forefront of their minds just now.
Wright said he was "surprised" Norway had made so many changes, particularly as they named the same starting XI for wins over Iraq and Senegal.
Nevin continued: "It is a very, very physical style that the Norwegians play.
"If they go and try that physical style and lose two players, was it worth it? I suspect they think that's not worth it and that's why they've done this.
"Had Norway put out their 'normal side', they've got about six players that are over 6ft 4in, 6ft 5in, they are good players as well, Haaland in there.
That would have been a different question for France. They wouldn't have given as much space.
Solbakken argued that he had to rest players because of the short window between their last game on Tuesday and facing France on Friday.
Norway are playing at their first World Cup since 1998 and former Republic of Ireland midfielder Roy Keane said he could see the reasoning.
"Remember this team [Norway] isn't used to tournament football yet and it's two teams with different expectations," added Keane, speaking on ITV.
"The French are expected to compete to win the World Cup.
"I think Norway's priority was to get out of the group which they have done and I think their manager has thought it will be tough to get past France, we'll rest and go again next week.
"I can see where he's coming from. You want the mentality when you can go and win the game but there's also the bigger picture.
The two countries have different expectations.
France assistant Guy Stephan, deputising for Didier Deschamps, who has temporarily returned to France for his mother's funeral, said he was not surprised to see so many Norway changes.
"He knew Norway were qualified so wanted to prepare for the round of 32," he said of Solbakken's line-up.
We will see in four days [if it was the right decision].
Thousands of Norwegian fans have spent large sums of money to travel to the United States and back their country at the World Cup.
While there was some head-scratching by some inside Boston Stadium when the team news dropped, others were determined not to let it spoil their enjoyment and performed their now familiar Viking-style row celebration at various points before and during the game.
Norway are just the fourth team to make 10 or more changes to their starting XI for a World Cup match in the same edition.
Spain did it in 2006 (11 v Saudi Arabia) and still won the final group-stage game. However, it did not work for them as they then lost 3-1 to France in the last 16.
However, there is one example where it did work.
In 2018, Belgium defeated Japan 3-2 after making 10 changes and then went on to beat Brazil 2-1 in the quarter-finals, before eventually going out to France.
Source: BBC
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