Football World Cup 1998 / Norway

The Norwegian national football team at the 1998 World Cup in France :

qualification

Norway qualified with six wins and two draws as group winners directly for the finals in France. It was Norway's second participation in the World Cup in a row after 1994 .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Norway	21: 2	20th
2	Hungary	10: 8	12
3	Finland	11:12	11
4th	Switzerland	11:12	10
5	Azerbaijan	3:22	3

Norway	-	Azerbaijan		5-0
Norway	-	Hungary		3-0
Switzerland	-	Norway		0: 1
Norway	-	Finland		1: 1
Hungary	-	Norway		1: 1
Finland	-	Norway		0: 4
Azerbaijan	-	Norway		0: 1
Norway	-	Switzerland		5-0

Norwegian contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Frode Grodås	Tottenham Hotspur	October 24, 1964	4th	0	0	0
12	Thomas Myhre	Everton FC	10/16/1973	0	0	0	0
23	Espen Baardsen	Tottenham Hotspur	December 07, 1977	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Gunnar Hall	Leeds United	08/11/1965	1	0	0	0
3	Ronny Johnsen	Manchester United	06/10/1969	4th	0	0	0
4th	Henning Berg	Manchester United	09/01/1969	4th	0	1	0
5	Stig Inge Bjørnebye	Liverpool FC	12/11/1969	4th	0	0	0
14th	Vegard Heggem	Rosenborg Trondheim	07/13/1975	0	0	0	0
15th	Dan Harrows	Celta Vigo	01/13/1970	4th	1	0	0
19th	Erik Hoftun	Rosenborg Trondheim	03/03/1969	0	0	0	0
21st	Vidar Riseth	LASK Linz	04/21/1972	4th	0	0	0
midfield player
6th	Ståle Solbakken	Aalborg BK	02/27/1968	3	0	0	0
7th	Erik Mykland	Panathinaikos Athens	07/21/1971	3	0	2	0
8th	Øyvind Leonhardsen	Liverpool FC	08/17/1970	3	0	1	0
10	Kjetil Rekdal	Hertha BSC	06/11/1968	4th	1	2	0
11	Mini Jakobsen	Rosenborg Trondheim	11/08/1965	1	0	0	0
16	Jostein Flo	Strømsgodset Toppfotball	10/03/1964	1	0	0	0
22nd	Roar beach	Rosenborg Trondheim	02/02/1970	3	0	0	0
striker
9	Goals André Flo	Chelsea FC	06/15/1973	4th	1	0	0
17th	Håvard Flo	SV Werder Bremen	04/04/1970	4th	1	1	0
18th	Egil Østenstad	Southampton FC	02/01/1972	1	0	0	0
20th	Ole Gunnar Solskjaer	Manchester United	02/26/1973	3	0	0	0
Trainer
	Egil Olsen		04/22/1942

Preliminary round

Norway was drawn to defending champions Brazil by FIFA. Other group opponents were the teams from Scotland and Morocco.

The group stage didn't start as expected for Norway. Against Morocco (2: 2) and Scotland (1: 1) it was only enough to draw. Then the meeting with the defending champion was on the schedule. Here Norway was able to surprise and beat Brazil 2: 1 after a 0-1 deficit. With this victory the unexpected entry into the knockout round succeeded; Before the start of the tournament, Scotland had been traded as the favorite to place second in the group behind Brazil.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Brazil	6: 3	6th
2	Norway	5: 4	5
3	Morocco	5: 5	4th
4th	Scotland	2: 6	1

Morocco	-	Norway		2: 2
Scotland	-	Norway		1: 1
Norway	-	Brazil		2: 1

Round of 16

Italy

-

Norway

1-0

In the last sixteen they met Italy. Norway could not build on the good performance from the group game against Brazil and lost 1-0 through an early goal by Christian Vieri . With that Norway was eliminated.

To date, this was the last appearance of the Norwegian national team at a World Cup final.