Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Nick Ames on Norway’s return to the World Cup:

If Norway’s highly fancied generation need a warning from history they need only look back 32 years and study the lessons from another searing, suspenseful American summer. They had raced through qualifying at England’s expense to reach their first World Cup since 1938; their top players were starting to make it in the Premier League and through the euphoria shone a confidence that a place in the knockout stage, at least, was there to be seized.

“When we got there we didn’t manage to even get close to the quality of play we had produced in qualification,” remembers Lars Bohinen, one of the silkier elements in a side that, under Egil Olsen, became renowned for an uncompromising and no-frills approach. “That’s the biggest disappointment when I talk now to my old teammates. We never got near to performing at the level we needed.”

In fact Norway were a shade unfortunate. Planted in a strength-sapping group alongside Mexico, Republic of Ireland and Italy, they finished fourth despite the teams finishing level on points and goal difference. Their failure came in attack; Olsen’s side were eliminated because they only scored once, beating Mexico before ultimately running aground in a famously sweltering goalless draw against Jack Charlton’s team at Giants Stadium.

This year’s Group I does not look much easier. But the dynamic of Norwegian football is different now; the not entirely inaccurate picture of burly Vikings replaced by elite, technically supreme talents in the moulds of Martin Ødegaard and Antonio Nusa. There is an Erling Haaland-shaped spearhead to convert chances that flow more frequently in Ståle Solbakken’s fast, flexible set-up.

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