Spain will face Norway at Estadio de Mestalla, in Valencia, in UEFA Europe 2020 Qualification 1th Round. Spain against Norway is the match with big interest because of great National squads and great perspectives in Qualification. Review our thoughts on this match here below. Group F 1. Sweden 2. Romania 3. Spain 4. Norway 5. Malta 6. Faroe Islands Spain FIFA Rating – 9 Spain, as always, has a very strong squad called up for Euro 2020 qualification. Of course, they are the strongest team in Group F and have all the chances to participate in Euro 2020. However, as we can see they have troubles in their team since they failed to play in the World Cup qualification due to lost against Russia. This caused by changing the head coach of the team just before the championship started. The team did not expect such changes and played far from their best football. Of course, changes in tactics at the last moment had bad consequences for the teams game. Moreover, they took only second place in UEFA Nations League, by losing against Croatia on road game and lost on their own pitch to England. As a result, England was promoted to PlayOffs and Croatia (vice-champions of the World) relegated to League B. Former Spanish national team player Luis Enrique was appointed as a new Head Coach of Spain to bring more victories and a confident team play. He gathered a very strong squad for qualification, it remains only to prove that they really are not worthy to stand so low in the FIFA rankings. Most of the players are the leaders in the main leagues of Europe, like LaLiga, Premier League and Bundesliga. Head Coach Luis Enrique Squad Goalkeepers David de Gea; Kepa Arrizabalaga; Pau Lopez; Defenders Jose Gaya; Jordi Alba; Juan Bernat; Mario Hermoso; Inigo Martinez; Sergio Ramos; Sergi Gomez; Jesus Navas; Sergi Roberto; Midfielders Sergio Busquets; Rodri Hernandez; Dani Ceballos; Saul Niguez; Sergio Canales; Dani Parejo; Strikers Alvaro Morata; Rodrigo Moreno; Marco Asensio; Iker Muniain, Jaime Mata; Norway FIFA Rating – 48 Last years Norway started to play very confidently and strongly. They took first place in League C in UEFA Nations League and was promoted to PlayOffs and League B, where opponents will be more stronger and dangerous. However, the team looked great during the year 2018. They lost only once against Bulgaria, have drawn 1 game with Slovenia and won 8 games including Friendly matches. In the last 10 matches they scored 16 goals, conceded only 5, moreover, they played 6 games with a clean sheet. They have a wide choice to select the most important players. Most of them are playing in England and the Netherlands. So they have a great school of football and one of the best experience in Europe. Head Coach Lars Lagerbäck Squad Goalkeepers Rune Jarstein; Sten Grytebust; Per Kristian Bråtveit; Defenders Håvard Nordtveit; Omar Elabdellaoui; Even Hovland; Martin Linnes; Haitam Aleesami; Jonas Svensson; Kristoffer Ajer; Sigurd Rosted; Midfielders Stefan Johansen; Markus Henriksen; Ole Selnæs; Mohamed Elyounoussi; Mats Møller Dæhli; Martin Ødegaard; Iver Fossum; Forwards Tarik Elyounoussi; Joshua King; Alexander Sørloth; Ola Kamara; Bjørn Maars Johnsen; H2H Last time these teams met was in the year 2003 in Euro qualification Playoffs Final. Of course, as now Spanish team was stronger and won against Norway in both matches with 5:1 result in aggregate. Be sure to check out https://smashingtip.com/football/international/europe-cup/ for other Euro 2020 qualification previews and grab your free SmashingTip!
Typical top teams game from Spain. They started playing fine football, got in behind for a nice goal..... Game over, right ??? Well Norway had other ideas and Spain lost the plot then Norway gets an iffy PK. 1-1 and the game of football turned into a scrap. The difference at the end was a stupid, totally brainless tackle by Norways keeper giving the Thug Ramos a chance to put away the resulting PK. Now the game is over. 2-1 to Spain but not with their usual aplomb.