Key events
Pre-match postbag. “Off to our local village salle des fêtes shortly for what’s known in this part of France as an auberge espagnol – you all bring a couple of dishes and share them communally. Then the match shown on a big screen. Loyalty to my country of residence means I shall have to support France, but Norway do have two Fulham players in the squad, so a little part of me …” – Richard Hirst
“Been traveling and I am now going to settle down in the hotel bar in front of their giant screen for the match, but the point is, if this WC were to be played in Europe today, we would need six hydration breaks. The weather is TERRIBLE” – krishnamoorthy v
“Alexei Lalas starts today’s recap of the USA loss to Turkiye by saying ‘last night I checked the flights back to Istanbul’. The very definition of Ugly American. What a d###” – Mary Waltz
“Even with the star man Haaland not playing, I’m sure Fifa will still rake in a few Bobb” – Peter Oh
As each group draws to its conclusion, hope becomes an ever more theoretical concept for poor old Scotland. But all is not quite lost yet. This particular match doesn’t have any bearing on Scottish hopes of scraping through to the knockouts, but the other Group I game between Senegal and Iraq does. Should Senegal fail to win, or Iraq fail to win by three goals, this section will throw Scotland one of the four lifelines they require to stay alive. Admittedly that would most likely boost their chance of survival from its current level of 7% to roughly 7.000001%, but baby steps. Daniel Gallan is following that match, and I’ll doubtless touch upon this subject here too, one way or another, at the very least at the very end.
Sigh.
Norway are the designated home team tonight, so they get first dibs on kit. They’ll wear their first-choice red shirts, so France switch to their second-choice white strip to ensure viewing isn’t a fiasco for colourblind fans. The pennant that captain Kylian Mbappé will hand over is a bit word heavy (even with the out-of-shot FFF logo, trust us) but the French tricolore is so beautiful it can handle all the heavy aesthetic lifting.
There isn’t a picture of both Norwegian shirt and their pennant on the wires, and you know what the MBM will always plump for first. But you’ll see plenty of their kit dotted throughout the report anyway, and isn’t that pennant a masterclass in Nordic minimalism?
France make four changes to the team selected to start the win over Iraq. Désiré Doué, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Théo Hernandez and Maxence Lacroix come in for Bradley Barcola, Adrien Rabiot, Lucas Digne and William Saliba, who all drop to the bench. Both teams are certain of qualifying for the knockouts, so it would appear France are placing more importance on finishing top than Norway boss Ståle Solbakken. Didier Deschamps is absent, having flown home to attend his mother’s funeral.
So much for that Erling Haaland versus Kylian Mbappé shootout: Norway coach Stale Solbakken has rested the striker. He’s one of ten players stood down, with the only regular starter to retain his starting spot being Benfica midfielder Fredrik Aursnes … who is being redeployed tonight at right-back.
The teams
Norway: Selvik, Aursnes, Falchener, Ostigard, Bjorkan, Thorstvedt, Berg, Aasgaard, Bobb, Larsen, Schjelderup.
Subs: Nyland, Tangvik, Thorsby, Ajer, Wolfe, Sorloth, Berge, Haaland, Odegaard, Pedersen, Heggem, Nusa, Hauge, Langas, Ryerson.
France: Maignan, Kounde, Upamecano, Lacroix, Theo Hernandez, Tchouameni, Kone, Dembele, Olise, Doue, Mbappe.
Subs: Samba, Risser, Gusto, Digne, Thuram, Barcola, Kante, Rabiot, Konate, Saliba, Zaire Emery, Lucas Hernandez, Mateta, Cherki, Akliouche.
Referee: Michael Oliver (England).
… and here’s what France have gotten up to. A Kylian Mbappé double double, giving us a chance to double down on our double-double riff with a double-double-riff double.
Here’s how Norway have done so far. An Erling Haaland double double.
This is how we saw it from the outset. Not much has changed. Yet. Reacquaint yourself with both squads, and let’s go.
Preamble
One of the tournament favourites meet perhaps the most transparently obvious of the dark horses. In purely reductive terms, it’s Kylian Mbappé versus Erling Haaland … and you know what, purely reductive terms are good enough to whet the appetite for this one. Mbappé and Haaland have already contributed four goals apiece in the first two matches; these teams have found the net 13 times between them already. So this could be a doozy, especially as top spot in Group I will at least theoretically prove beneficial come the knockout phase. Though it doesn’t always work out that way, of course. Let the good times roll at 8pm BST, 3pm EDT, 5am AEST. It’s on!
