After the vital 3-2 win over Switzerland at the Cluj Arena, the Azzurrini take on Norway - bottom of the group with 0 points - in their third and final game of Group D in this European Championships. A key match for Paolo Nicolato's boys to get through to the knock-out stages for the second time in a row after they managed in 2021.

Although the Norwegians haven't managed to get a single point from their first two outings - 2-1 loss against Switzerland in the opener and then a 1-0 against France - they proved to be tough and organised, as they proved in the qualification for these Euros (first in their group with 24 points, with 8 wins and 2 losses). As far as previous meetings are concerned, the record smiles on the Azzurrini, who remain unbeaten in 6 of 8 matches played against the Scandinavians - 4 wins and 2 draws, with the most recent coming in a friendly played on 22 March 2018 (1-1, Vido with the goal and Alberico Evani as coach). More generally, Italy and Norway have only ever faced each other in a U21 European Championship finals one time: a 1-1 draw in the group stage on 11 June 2013 (Stefan Strandberg and Andrea Bertolacci with the goals). 

Norway intense. Duels, high pressing and offensive recoveries

What did these first two matches of the Under-21 European Championship tell us about Norway? Leif Gunnar Smerud's side, despite the two defeats, played a proactive game, characterised by great intensity in the duels and a high propensity for offensive ball recovery, the result of an organised and collective pressing. It is a team that does not concede many goal chances to their opponents and likes to attack the ball carriers in the opponent's half of the field. Among the 16 national teams present in this European Championship, Norway is first in terms of duels won in a single match of the current tournament (67 in the opening match against Switzerland, at least five more than any other opponent in the competition - at 62 Germany), and this has led the Norwegians to be the side with the highest success rate in this statistic among their peers (56.6% or 115 won out of 203 engaged). Norway prepare their offensive actions by trying to isolate the more technical players in one-on-one: a theory confirmed by the data on dribbles both attempted and successfully completed in this European Championship (62 - at least 13 more than any other opponent - and 39 successful, respectively). We also mention the high pressing, on which the Scandinavian national team bases its identity: six shots following an offensive ball recovery (i.e. within a maximum of 40 metres from the opponent's goal), simply the highest figure of the current event. Attention also has to be paid to the Norwegians' second-half performances: both in the first match and in the last match against France, Smerud's team took more shots in the second half: against the French even zero in the first half and eight (of which two were on target) in the second.

 

 

Bobb and Hove ones to watch, Ceide and Botheim are familiar talents

Two players we saw in the most recent Serie A and two talents in evidence in the first two matches. There are essentially four Norwegian players that the Azzurri backline will have to keep an eye on and not underestimate in the last match of Group D of this European Championship. Let's start with Emil Konradsen Ceide, the 2001 born lad from Sassuolo who scored in the opening match against Switzerland and who can play as a wide midfielder or as a winger in a front three, depending on the formation and the moment of the game. Almost certainly leading the Scandinavians' attack will be Erik Botheim, an insidious striker who collected one goal and three assists in 28 appearances in the last Italian championship. It will be a head-to-head battle with Pirola, as the two were teammates in Paulo Sousa's Salernitana this season. We are less familiar with them, but attacking midfielder Oscar Bobb and midfielder Johan Hove are also showing themselves in this first part of the European Championship. The 2003-born Manchester City Under-21 player is the Norwegian with attempted the most dribbles (15) and completed the most (10) in the current competition, and overall is second only to Spain's Rodri (16 and 11 respectively). To demonstrate the dangerousness of the offensive outside player, it is enough to consider how Bobb alone - in these first two matches - has successfully completed almost a quarter of the dribbles completed overall by the remaining Norwegian players (10 out of 39). The fourth player on whom a lot of attention will have to be paid is Groningen's 23-year-old midfielder, who switched from Strømsgodset to the green-and-whites in January and who has created 23 chances in the Eredivisie since the start of the year. Among the Norwegian's younger midfielders only Orkun Kökcü (55, December 2000), Million Manhoef (31, January 2002), Xavi Simons (38, April 2003) and Kacper Kozlowski (26, October 2003) have recorded more in the Dutch league 2022/23. Johan Hove is a generous player, who sacrifices himself for the team, but also brings his technique to the offensive side of the game: the 23 year old is one of two Norway Under-21 players to have created the most chances in these first two matches of the European Championship (five, equalling Christos Zafeiris). Norway will try to concede as little as possible to Italy and at the same time try to strike at the right time, exploiting the quality at their disposal between midfield and attack.