After losing to Northern Ireland in his second international match in 2011, the Norwegian ball artist has taken a terrible revenge. With her two goals on Friday, she has scored 11 of her 49 national team goals against Northern Ireland, in six games Norway has won 27-2 in total.
Half of the back four also made their mark on the scoring list in Larne, where Tuva Hansen and Guro Bergsvand scored after a corner kick from Vilde Bøe Risa.
Tuesday’s return match at the Ullevaal stadium remains, but after Friday’s away win it is inconceivable that it will end with anything other than Norway qualifying for an EC or WC play-off for the 22nd time in a row.
Northern Ireland added the home game to a pitch that is five meters shorter and eight meters narrower than Ullevaal.
– They are trying to make it difficult for us. It just gives us extra motivation. We will show who is the best, Graham Hansen told TV 2 before the match, and she kept her word.
Class players
Just over six minutes had been played when she scored the leading goal in Larne. Norway had a team full of class players from big European clubs, but it was two home-grown players who created the goal.
VIF star Karina Sævik played LSK player Emilie Woldvik on the right. She stormed to the short line and struck out obliquely. Frida Maanum was unable to finish at the near post, but the ball bounced on to Graham, who put it into the goal.
In the 14th minute it was 2-0 to the visitors. Northern Ireland won two headers on Vilde Bøe Risa’s corner kick, but the clearance header went straight to Tuva Hansen, who from 25 meters sent a crosser into the far corner.
Demonstration
Well 25 minutes into the match, it was punctured, after a performance by Graham Hansen. She received the ball from Tuva Hansen half a meter into her own half and sped along the left side. After wall games with Guro Reiten, she cut into the field. First she tricked stopper Rebecca McKenna with a fine cross, then she rolled the ball between the legs of goalkeeper Jackie Burns from an acute angle.
The Norwegians took their foot off the gas a little, but never released Northern Ireland from its iron grip. The 4-0 goal came in the middle of the second half, after the Norwegians showed muscle on a set piece. Burns missed Bøe Risa’s corner kick, and Bergsvand had two chances to kick it into the goal from close range. On the last one it succeeded.
Norway has participated in 13 straight EC finals from 1987 to 2022 and can start planning an EC summer in Switzerland in July 2025 as well. Norway is also one of the few countries that has been in all nine World Cup play-offs from 1991 to 2023. 22 play-offs in a row in the European Championship and the World Cup is a number no other nation can match.