What a finish to give Scotland a classic smash-and-grab victory and send their fans into the sun-dappled Oslo evening ready to party all night. With three minutes of normal time left Steve Clarke’s side trailed to Erling Haaland’s 59th goal of the season and were staring at their first defeat of Euro 2024 qualifying.
But then came a showstopping close that cast Haaland’s penalty as immaterial. First Lyndon Dykes poked home an equaliser after John McGinn probed. Then a sweeping Scott McTominay ball was tapped from McGinn to Dykes who teed up Kenny McLean. The substitute fired in to send the Tartan Army into ecstasy.
After the victories against Cyprus and Spain (aggregate: 5-0), Clarke talked of how achieving a result on the road against a foe such as Norway would mark further development in his project. Well, he has such a result now.
A delighted Clarke said: “When it’s your moment you just have to ride the wave. The boys believe in themselves and kept going and dug themselves out of a tight corner. We stay top of the group, which is nice.”
Of Dykes’s goal and assist, he said: “He never lets his country down. He’s great. Against a team like Norway, his physicality was good. I’m pleased for Lyndon to get his goal.”
The prize for the visitors was mastery of their destiny if they left with a victory that, due to it coming on the road, would be as precious as the downing of Spain last time out at Hampden Park.
In 33C pitchside heat the strategy was to sit and ask Stale Solbakken’s men to try to dismantle them. Twice this nearly occurred as Scotland escaped. A first flowing Norway move had Patrick Berg feeding Martin Ødegaard who found the overlapping Julian Ryerson. The right-back lifted the ball in Haaland’s general direction but his radar was awry.
Ola Solbakken, marauding down the left, was more precise: up went a cross that invited Alexander Sørloth to head past Angus Gunn but he found only the goalkeeper.
The contest had warmed and Scotland counterpunched. A McTominay corner from the left fizzed in and out of Norway’s area and his side claimed a second kick, this time on the right. McGinn stabbed it into the danger area and Ørjan Nyland rose to clutch the ball.
McGinn went close to an opener before the interval, his shot blocked by a flailing Stefan Strandberg, before the half closed with Jack Hendry sighing in relief. After manhandling Haaland to the ground the centre-back received only a yellow card, even though the striker would have been in on goal if he had not been impeded.
Haaland, quiet thus far, next turned and teed up Solbakken – his effort was simple for Gunn, as was McGinn’s longer-range attempt for Nyland to gather. Scotland had Norway where they wanted: needing to take more risks to break the stalemate as the clock ticked on.
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Hendry enjoyed a second moment of fortune which, again, involved Haaland, who danced and shimmied into Scotland’s area: the defender appeared to take him down but Matej Jug, the referee, was not interested.
Norway were unhappy and would have been incensed if, moments afterwards, an Andy Robertson surge had breached them. It did not, and the home side then struck via a penalty. It came when a raid down their right allowed Sørloth to feed the ball into the area. Ryan Porteous put Haaland on the floor and Jug pointed to the spot.
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The lethal centre-forward beat Gunn to his right with only his 13th touch of the match. Haaland, his teammates and the Norway faithful were jubilant. The 22-year-old’s follow-up act was a rampage through the middle after a lay-off, but no return pass arrived.
When Haaland was taken off toward the end it was a pleasing sight for Scotland, but not as welcome as what was about to happen. With Norway on one point from three outings and five matches left, Ødegaard could not hide his disappointment.
“It’s a tough one to take,” said the Norway captain. “It’s going to be very difficult now [to qualify], we have to be honest. We have to stick together and take it from there.”
