OSLO, Norway (AP) — Erling Haaland and Norway will face the Netherlands and Switzerland in March to prepare for a tough World Cup group led by France, as European teams set their warm-up opponents on Monday.
Norway qualified for the World Cup with eight wins and a Europe-best 37 goals (16 from Haaland), and will play away to the Netherlands on March 27, and four days later against Switzerland in Oslo, the Norwegian Football Federation announced.
Norway coach Starre Solbakken pointed out that the Netherlands and Switzerland also made an impression by finishing first in their qualifying groups.
of Friday’s World Cup Draw Norway were placed in the same group as France and Senegal and were the winners of a play-off bracket that also included Iraq, Bolivia and Suriname. The playoffs will be decided on March 31st.
Switzerland will play Germany in Basel on March 27th. At last year’s European Championship, they drew 1-1 in the group stage and were eliminated in the quarterfinals.
“Switzerland are a great opponent, just three months before the start of the tournament, and they will push us hard,” said Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann.
Germany are looking for a new opponent in March after being drawn in the same group at the World Cup and no longer scheduled to play Ivory Coast. This includes Curaçao and Ecuador.
World Cup teams are likely to play two more warm-up games as part of training camps starting in late May ahead of the June 11-July 19 tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
___
AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
