Norway avenges Wales to keep hopes alive
Erling Haaland's late penalty rounded off a 3-1 victory for Norway over Wales, keeping its hopes of qualifying for the UEFA Nations League quarter-finals alive.
Antonio Nusa and Andreas Schjelderup had put Norway in a commanding position early in the second half, but Wales threatened a comeback after David Brooks halved the deficit, only for Haaland's goal to end any hopes of reaching the knockout stage.
Harry Wilson's improvised volley bounced well wide in the second minute for Wales before Norway started to impose itself on the contest, with Thelo Aasgaard and Torbjorn Heggem failing to hit the target from corners.
But Wales continued to prove a threat on the break, with Dan James squandering two golden opportunities after beating Norway's defence for pace. He also forced Egil Selvik into a sharp save at his near post just before the break as Wales finished the first half on a high.
Norway, which failed to have a shot on target in the first half, improved after half-time and hit the front in the 59th minute when Nusa pounced on a half-cleared corner to drill into the bottom-left corner.
The hosts doubled their lead nine minutes later, playing neatly out from the back. Haaland unselfishly teed up Schjelderup to guide the ball home from the right of the box.
Wales responded well, though, with Neco Williams slicing wide before Ethan Ampadu forced a fine stop out of Selvik.
Brooks halved the deficit 79 minutes in, playing a one-two with Wilson to drive into the box, where he shrugged off David Moller Wolfe before dinking a lovely finish over Selvik.
Norway wrapped things up in the 88th minute, with Roberts penalised for a foul on Schjelderup in the box, and Haaland made no mistake from 12 yards, hitting the net after a stuttering run-up.
Haaland struck the post, albeit from an offside position, before Nusa forced a sharp save out of Karl Darlow, and the Manchester City striker then saw an effort cleared off the line as Norway was denied a fourth goal in stoppage-time.
Wales is guaranteed to finish bottom of Group A4 ahead of its final game against Portugal on Wednesday (AEDT), but manager Craig Bellamy took plenty of positives from this latest defeat.
"It was a good performance. I thought there were huge parts of the game where we played really well," he said.
"We wanted to take the game to Norway here, we didn't want to just sit back.
"I thought we could have been better with our final ball at times. I always felt we were in the game.
"I'd like to have this game again because there was some really good stuff out there at times, but it's still disappointing because we lost at the end of the day."
Norway has now scored in each of its past 24 competitive matches since a goalless draw with Kazakhstan in the UEFA Nations League in September 2024.
"It's a massive relief. We knew it was going to be a tough game," Norway midfielder Sander Berge said.
"This is [UEFA] Nations League A. At B and C level, we were dominating a lot of games for the whole match and won with big numbers, but this level is different.
"The individual level of every single player is so much higher. Wales showed how good they are when they beat us, and today we had to dig so deep to get the win."
