New Netherlands manager Andries Jonker has given rest to Lieke Martens, Stefanie van der Gragt, Dominique Janssen and Shanice van de Sanden due to their busy fixtures. Star striker Vivianne Miedema fell ill. Katja Snoeijs, who was supposed to replace him, had to withdraw due to injury. Besides, Lineth Beerensteyn has returned home for personal reasons

Former Vålerenga captain Sherida Spitse is one of the few established players in a squad where many young talents have had the opportunity to show themselves.

– Our approach to the game is the same. We are facing a good team, and they have a lot of good players. But we are a little unsure which formation we will face because they have a new coach. We have seen their game against Iceland, when they qualified for the World Cup. “Besides, we don’t have many photos of them with the new coach, so we’re a little unsure of what we’re going to face,” national team manager Hege Riise told NTB.

– But we believe we will face a good team.

New formation

The Netherlands lost their first sparring partner during the encounter when Zambia had to withdraw from a scheduled match in Breda last Thursday due to visa issues. Instead, the team played against two Dutch women’s teams, Feyenoord and ADO Den Haag, one round each. Jonker’s national team does it in a new 3-5-2 formation which he will test during this encounter as an alternative to the incorporated 4-3-3.

– We haven’t seen them in that formation, but that’s the information I carry, and we coaches should at least keep that in mind, said Riise.

National team captain Maren Mjelde is also excited about how the Netherlands will perform on Tuesday.

– We had a tough game against Brazil where we were punished severely, fully deserved, of course. We were a little unsure how they would appear since we hadn’t seen them in a long time. It could be the same thing happened to the Netherlands. They have their own way of playing, with good footballers. “If they think about changing the formation, it gives us some challenges,” he told NTB.

– Our aim is to take lessons from what we did against Brazil, to be able to close the gap and make it difficult for the Netherlands.

Energy

Like the Netherlands, Norway had to do without important players. There have been several substitutes in the squad that initially lost two of Norway’s biggest stars Caroline Graham Hansen and Ada Hegerberg. The players who trained in The Hague on Monday were at least ready.

– Now everyone is available, and that’s fun. Malin (Brenn) and Emma (Godø) have joined the squad (from the U23 team who are in Rotterdam a few miles from The Hague). “We had a good training today, with a lot of energy, competition and encouragement,” Riise said after training on the battlefield.

– There are many tactics in other sessions and in meetings. In the last session before the game, we will release energy.

The players feel ready to make things difficult for the Netherlands.

– We have to have a good structure against teams that want to play through us. We have to be smart defensively, and we have to keep the ball when we have the chance. Hopefully we can create more going forward, but the defensive structure will be very important. “We have practiced a lot in the last two meetings,” said Ingrid Syrstad Engen.