A lot can happen in one year. In June of last year, Norway gave two practice matches against Greece and Luxembourg so weak that you can both laugh and laugh.

The pace is slow. Selection failed. The stars are wrapped.

Norway have now picked up two of the national team’s strongest wins since the turn of the millennium, away against Serbia and Sweden. It’s not just the results that give the confidence that Norway can reach the European Championships.

That’s also the way they do it.

Never like Brazil

In both matches, the picture of the game is as expected should Norway meet the considered stronger opponent in the European Championship.

For a long time, Norway endured a period of intense pressure against its own goals. Especially after the break, they were played low by Serbia and Sweden, who pumped posts and corners into the Norwegian box.

One could find this worrying, as Norway has had to fight for so long with its back to the wall. In an ideal world, they had been in control of the battle the entire time.

But the players got tired, and Norway met two good teams. Besides, this situation is something the national team has to master no matter what.

No matter how well Ståle Solbakken makes this team, Norway will never be like Brazil or Spain. They can push hard and roll the ball, but in the playoffs they will face a strong team. They had to defend themselves deeply. They will need tackles, saves and blocks.

In this case, the matches against Serbia and Sweden are not only part of the road to the European Championship, but also a test of whether Norway really has something to do there.

Here they succeed with bravura.

The king in the box

Most of the reasons are about how Solbakken teases the team, that the parts of the team are more connected, that the distance between players is better.

Such things take time, and Solbakken has always been aware that one cannot demand perfection last summer.

It was heartening to hear him say that Norway still has a lot to improve.

As well as tactics, Norway has put in place players who suit such situations. rjan Nyland has delivered two good plays, two defenders contribute forward and are difficult to pass, and three in the middle working hard to protect the defence.

But key in these two games were goalkeepers, Stefan Strandberg and Leo Stigård, who have shown incredible ability to defend their own box. Norway need that kind of quality if they are to win a game in the European Championship.

Now they seem to have it.

Shot under pressure

The positive trend in the two games is how few chances Norway has received.

In general, teams that defend deep tend to have a few shots. It is almost inevitable.

The most important thing then is to only allow shots that are taken under pressure, or from long range, or with a lot of Norwegian players between the ball and goal. Teams like Burnley and Atlético Madrid have often played like this over the last decade – and it worked.

Atlético in particular have taken a lot of trouble coming out under high pressure, getting an early goal and then going in and closing out all the spaces. They can block clearer shots and posts for well over an hour, and they seem comfortable with that.

When you get shot again and again without letting it in, it’s not just luck.

The same can be said about Norway in these two games. Serbia has 13 finishes, Norway has four. But if you look at the “expected goals”, a statistic that calculates how big the odds are, the teams end up pretty much the same. Thus, four Norwegian finishes are as dangerous as 13 Serbian finishes.

Sweden won the shooting stats 13-12, but again Norway created the biggest chances so far. That says something about defensive play.

And then it helps to have the best counter-attack in the world.

Solo attack

The ability to defend your own box is the perfect combination with Erling Braut Haaland.

In England, there has been a lot of talk about how Haaland would fit in with Manchester City. The reason for that was that City attacked with a lot of movement, with a few short passes, which allowed their opponents to go deep and close in the back room.

With Norway in a tough game this is not a problem.

When the national team is played so low on the pitch, they could not dream of a better striker than Haaland. He gets the backroom he loves, and he gets the space to challenge the stoppers and let go of the markers.

Best of all, he is a lone attack. Norway could theoretically defend themselves for 89 minutes, before a simple long pass against Haaland led to the goal.

Big opportunities

The challenge was to find a connection between deep defense and Haaland who could get the ball to him in good positions. This may be the stick from Martin degaard, which we have seen before. This may be a stub from Alexander Sørloth, which we saw in Sweden on Sunday.

Apart from that, Haaland is excellent at free-running the field and finding dangerous positions, something he has shown for Dortmund for a long time, and which he demonstrated with the race before scoring against Serbia.

This is a truth that applies to all top scorers. Some finish better than others, but the hallmark of the best is how many big chances they get. It’s about talent, running, timing, focus, and the physical ability to get into position.

Few, if any, are better than Haaland in this regard.

Combined with defensive play, this gave Norway a promising ability in these two games. They are good at dodging great odds against. They are good at creating themselves.

And if you can do it, you’ve come a long way.