🤯 Was he happy with it?! Why Haaland was left on the bench

🤯 Was he happy with it?! Why Haaland was left on the bench It came as a huge surprise when Norway coach Solbakken announced his lineup yesterday ahead of the match against France. The names of the two absolute superstars, Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard, were nowhere to be found. He also rotated on ten positions beyond that. So far, so understandable - at least if, as in the German national team’s last group match, there had been nothing left to play for. But the opposite was true: while Norway were already guaranteed qualification, they still had a chance to win the group and with it a supposedly easier opponent in the round of 32. Instead, the “B team” were thoroughly outclassed by title contenders France and lost 1-4. So did coach Ståle Solbakken regret cranking the rotation machine into overdrive after the final whistle? Not at all. For him, it had been unavoidable and therefore a so-called “no-brainer.” Huh? He explained it as follows. Norway were “not here for fun” and wanted to “stay here as long as possible.” That’s why, for him, it was an obvious decision. His team had shown signs of fatigue after the match against Senegal. Tests had revealed that. The logical consequence: a rest for the regular starters. That is how Solbakken was quoted by ‘Bild’.  The tournament bracket Norway have now landed in by finishing second is definitely a tough one. After the first knockout match against Ivory Coast, Brazil could then be waiting in the round of 16. Well - if you want to become world champions, you have to beat everyone anyway, right? Whether Erling Haaland & Co. were thrilled with the idea of being condemned to watch against France? Nobody knows. TV pundit & Bundesliga star Jonas Hofmann did speculate on ‘MagentaTV’, however, that this probably was not the case: “Haaland is surely thinking too: I want to be the top scorer here at the World Cup. Then to be sitting on the bench… I don’t know if he was entirely okay with that.” We’ll probably never find out. What we will get to see as the tournament goes on, though, is whether this was a clever move by the Norway coach - or whether he overplayed his hand a little.  What about you? Are you more Team Nagelsmann or Team Solbakken? A well-drilled first-choice XI or rested regular starters? Write it in the comments! This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.