Norway were held to a 1-1 draw away to Georgia that leaves the Scandinavians without a win two games into their European Championships qualifying campaign.
Stale Solbakken’s side – who were unable to call upon superstar striker Erling Haaland after the Manchester City centre-forward picked up an injury that ruled him out of the international break –suffered a 3-0 defeat to Spain in Malaga on Saturday before failing to garner three points.
The visitors took the lead early on in Georgia when Real Sociedad attacker Alexander Sorloth opened the scoring with a superbly-taken goal on 15 minutes. Latching onto a long ball forward, the 27-year-old did well to get it under control and create an angle for himself on the edge of the box before he rifled an unstoppable shot into Giorgi Mamardashvili’s bottom-left corner.
What a strike that is from @RealSociedadEN's Alexander Sørloth! 🇳🇴
— Viaplay Sports UK (@ViaplaySportsUK) March 28, 2023
Just the start Norway were looking for as they try to bounce back from their opening defeat to Spain 👏#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/JYW9LQ3EyL
The home side didn’t see much of the ball, instead relying on quick-fire counter-attacks to hurt their opponents and with Napoli winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the park – arguably the most in-form player in Europe’s top leagues – it was a fairly sound strategy.
They would get their reward on the hour-mark. A long kick forward was flicked beyond Norway’s high defence and Metz forward Georges Mikautadze scarpered through on goal to slot the ball beyond Orjan Nyland from the resulting one-on-one.
And there's the equaliser! 👀
— Viaplay Sports UK (@ViaplaySportsUK) March 28, 2023
Mikautadze brings Georgia level against Norway and now it's all to play for in the final 30 minutes 🇬🇪#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/g5apCDB3Fd
Martin Odegaard spurned a glorious chance to hand Norway the lead and there was late drama as VAR intervened to take a second look at a potential penalty for Georgia in second-half stoppage time but the original decision was upheld as the two sides settled for a point apiece.
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