«17 years without defeat against Norway have passed. And oh my God, it hurts when such prestige is cracked.”

It writes courtesy of Aftonbladet author’s profile Johanna Frändén after a 1-2 defeat against Norway on Sunday.

He is not alone in his frustration and disappointment after the defeats against Erling Braut Haaland and the Norwegian team.

Sweden star Dejan Kulusevski was very disappointed with the match. He tells NRK that he thinks Norway deserved to win.

– They’re better than us. They weren’t that great, but I think we were pretty weak today. They deserve it, said the Tottenham star.

Here you can see highlights from the match:

– It is okay

Kulusevski believes Sweden looked insecure and undecided against a good Norwegian team.

– We have to become much, much better in all areas, especially mental, we have to get rid of the fear that we have. Against a team like Norway, no matter who comes here, it will be difficult to play against us. “It’s not right that we do the rounds like we did today,” he said.

– You use a word like fear, is it Haaland you are afraid of?

– Not. But we didn’t play well, we didn’t know what to do. “I thought we had a good attack in 45 minutes, it wasn’t great,” Kulusevski told NRK.

– Really terrible

Sweden’s national team manager Janne Andersson is not as negative as Kulusevski. Andersson was more upset with the penalty situation that gave the score 1-0 than Sweden’s own game.

– Absolutely terrible. I’ve seen it again, and if we have VAR, and they can’t even assess the situation better, then we don’t need VAR. This is very bad, he said.

Even so, he took defeat seriously.

– It’s boring to lose, so boring. But if I look at the overall performance, I think we are doing well. Part of the fight is also pretty good. But it is impossible to escape from the fact that the penalty kick “rules” the match a little. This is very boring. When you have VAR you have to make the right decisions, he repeated.

– Don’t say we’re bad

The captain of the Norwegian national team Martin degaard disagrees with the Swedes who think Sweden is the best.

– I felt we were pretty solid from start to finish. It was a period at the start of the second half where they had a lot of set pieces and a little bit of pressure on us otherwise I felt that we controlled it. They didn’t create the whole world, degaard told NRK.

Janne Andersson replied with the following:

– Don’t tell me that we are bad today, then I will not be happy. We were good for a long time, they weren’t better than us, but they won the game. And then we can talk more about penalty kicks. Take a look and discuss what you think about it. It was nowhere near a penalty, and with VAR, he sighed.

National team manager Ståle Solbakken described the win as “huge” for Norway. Solbakken was impressed by the unity and courage of his group.

– This is a group that likes to play for Norway. I think we’ve had one setback in the last 2-3 meetings, private matches and all, it’s a group that is growing together, he thought.

– Not happy before we go to the championship

A Swedish reporter asked Solbakken if he thought the game was more important for Norway than Sweden, and the national team manager had to smile.

– I guess you want to say that now, I think. But no, you can’t ignore it. We may be in a desperate phase of getting to the playoffs, and once we do, I think it will be easier to get to more playoffs. “It was important for us to get that breakthrough, and then we have to learn to beat the better-ranked team,” said Solbakken.

He received support from Morten Thorsby, who is now warning against taking off after a brilliant start to the national league group game.

Thorsby knew very well how long it had been since the Norwegians had managed to become good friends.

– We just have to keep going, we can’t be happy until we go to the championship. “Now we’ve made two good games, but we can’t be happy until we take this team to the championship,” he said.

Sweden boss asks for time

Janne Andersson has changed Sweden’s style of play and is ready to face the fact that it will take time to get the results Sweden want.

He thinks it’s easy to see in Norway that Ståle Solbakken is starting to get things done.

– He has been the manager of the national team for a year and a half and has played the same way all the time and has managed the game, he is very clear about how they have to play. I have been manager of the national team for six years, and now we have decided that we are going to play in a new way. “It will take time, and I have made that decision,” he said.

Norway now continues with two home games in the National League. Slovenia will first await Ullevaal on June 9 before the encounter ends with a new match against Sweden on June 12.

The National League group matches ended with two matches against Slovenia (away) and Serbia (home) on 24 and 27 September.