STOCKHOLM / OSLO (VG) After two strong away wins in a row, Martin degaard (23) has no doubts: He has never experienced a Norwegian team as good as the current Norwegian team.

– No, I do not have. I’ve said it many times, something special happened. We’re taking steps along the way and I hope people see that we’re a group that likes to play for Norway, who fights for each other and who likes to do it here. “I hope people see it and it pays off,” degaard told VG.

On Sunday, the Norway captain led his team to victory over Sweden at the Friends Arena, and followed it up with an away win against Serbia in perfect fashion.

Sweden and Serbia are 19th and 25th in the latest rankings, respectively FIFA Ranking. Since the FIFA rankings were introduced in December 1992, Norway have never won an away game against a team ranked as high as Sweden now.

The best old record was when Poland – then 22nd in the FIFA rankings – were beaten 3-0 in a World Cup qualifying match in October 1993.

– We have made two good away games, but that doesn’t mean that we are the best team in the world. But there is a small barrier that has been broken, where we beat a team that is much higher ranked and on a difficult away pitch. Sweden almost never lose at home, national team coach Ståle Solbakken told VG.

– In the five years I’ve been here, we haven’t come from Sweden and Serbia with six points, so it’s a big step in the right direction. We have to go further and build on it. Don’t let it be a one-off incident, Sander Berge told VG.

– We have built a very strong team in the last year. Good relationship between everyone, we’ve played a lot together and now we’re showing that in the two games we’ve played. “Six points from two away games, maybe no one expected,” Marcus Holmgren Pedersen told VG.

At VGTV studios, there is a clear agreement that Norway is the best against Sweden. That view was also shared by one of Sweden’s biggest stars:

– They’re better than us. They weren’t great, but we were pretty weak today. They deserved to win, Dejan Kulusevski told VG and several media outlets.

Sunday’s defeat was Sweden’s first on their own soil against Norway in a tally game ever.

– It tastes really good. Lovely to beat the “sweet brother” in front of so much audience and frame it. “It’s a game you want to win, a rival finish here,” said Berge.

– Absolutely fantastic, said Holmgren Pedersen about being part of the first Norwegian team to win an away game against Sweden.

With two wins from two games deemed the most difficult, there is little doubt that Norway have the perfect start to the Nations League group stage.

Before next week’s home games against Slovenia (Thursday) and Sweden (Sunday), the Norwegian players are not afraid to talk about promotion to the Nations League League A and the ambition is to win the group.

– No doubt. We came with the aim of winning the group, and now I feel we have something going on. “We have security and a culture within the team where we show we’re improving everyone when we need it most,” said Berge.

– We have to move on. Keep it humble, work hard and both focused now towards the two home games. If we manage to get it out there, it looks really good. “It’s hard to say how many points we should have, but we are chasing wins in both games,” said degaard.

PS: Apart from the host nation Germany, 20 teams will advance to the European Cup through the qualifying rounds next year, while the final three places will go to the teams that qualify via the Nations League: