May 24, 2021
The 2021 season in Norway was scheduled to start on April 5th and finish on November 27th. However, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic the top league only began on May 9th with only half of the matches being played in the first two weeks. The regular season is now due to finish on December 12th, which whilst being much later than usual, is still earlier than the December 22nd finish in 2020. As it stands the league table has a lop-sided look to it, with two sides having played four matches, several have played three matches, but 8 sides have played only once
There are 16 sides in the Norway Eliteserien, who play each other twice for a 30 game season. The Champions will qualify for the First Qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, with the runners-up, third place side and the Cup Winners entering the Europa Conference League. The bottom two sides will be relegated to the Norway First League, known as the OBOS-ligaen, whilst the side finishing 14th faces a play-off against the winner of the First League promotion play-offs
All Eliteserien matches are streamed live on Bet365.com, and last year some matches shown live on Eurosport. Highlights are available on the league website ( www.eliteserien.no ).
Currently attendances of 600 have been permitted in the Eliteserien, although some matches have still been played behind closed doors.
The Norwegian Championship was first played for in 1937/38 and there have been 17 different clubs winning the title, with Rosenburg of Trondheim having won the most times with 26 titles. Fredrikstad come next with 9 titles, followed by Viking of Stavanger with 8 championships
The Eliteserien is ranked 22nd in Europe by UEFA but as it is played over the summer, the qualifiers for Europe from the 2021 season will play in the 2022/23 European competitions. Bodo/Glimt, located within the Arctic circle, won the 2020 Eliteserien with a record points total of 81 points, winning 26 of the 30 league matches. Molde finished in second place, 19 points behind the champions, with Valerenga a further 7 points back. With the 2020 Norwegian Cup being cancelled the third Europa Conference place was awarded to fourth placed Rosenborg.
In the 2020/21 Champions Molde first overcame Finnish side KuPS 5-0, in what one wag labelled the Student Kitchen derby ! In the next round they beat Celje 2-1 in Slovenia after which they squeezed past Qarabag in a penalty shoot-out in Azerbaijan following a 0-0 draw after extra time. Unfortunately they were eliminated on away goals by Ferencvaros in the final play-off round, drawing 3-3 at home in the first leg, but could only manage a 0-0 in the return in Hungary.
Dropping down to the Europa League, Molde qualified for the knock stages by finishing second in their group. Despite being heavily beaten twice by Arsenal, two wins over Dundalk and a win and a draw against Austria Wien were sufficient to progress, with the last game of the group being a 2-2 draw in Vienna. German side Hoffenheim were the opposition in the last 32, and after a 3-3 draw in Molde, the Norwegian side produced a major surprise to win 2-0 in Germany to move on to a tie with Granada. Unfortunately, the Spanish side were to end Molde’s run in the competition. After a 0-2 defeat in Spain, a 2-1 victory at home was not enough to qualify for the last 8 of the competition.
Rosenborg won three ties in the Europa League before being eliminated 0-2 at home to PSV Eindhoven in the final play-off round. However, prior to that they had beaten Breidablik of Iceland 4-2 at home, Ventsplis 5-1 in Latvia and Alanyaspor of Turkey 1-0 at home.
Bodo/Glimt hammered Kauno Zalgiris of Lithuania 6-1 before beating Zalgiris, another Lithuanian side 3-1. Their run ended though with a 2-3 defeat at AC Milan. Viking were eliminated at the first hurdle, losing 0-2 at home to Abdereen.
Today is Whit Monday in Norway, with a full schedule of leagues fixtures being played. The Odds BK versus Sarpsborg 08 encounter was the afternoon kick-off, 15.00 local time, with all seven of the other games starting at 18.00
Odds Ballklubb play in the city of Skien, one of the oldest cities in Norway and the birthplace of Henrik Ibsen, located approximately 130km south-west of the capital Oslo. The population of the municipality is estimated to be around 100,000. Until 2012, the side was known as Odd Grenland, reflecting the region they belong too, and now are often also just referred to as Odd. Founded in 1885, they are one of the oldest sports clubs in the country, with football first being played in 1894. Despite never having won a league title, they have won the Norwegian cup a record 12 times, although the last time was in 2000.
Their home ground is the Skagerak Arena, which was renovated between 2006 and 2008 into an all-seater stadium with an artificial grass pitch. It has an official capacity of 11,767 although the record attendance was 12,436 for a Europa league tie against Borussia Dortmund in 2015. The club colours are white shirts with black shorts.
Going into today’s match Odds had played just one match, a 2-2 draw at Stabaek in which striker Mushaga Bakenga, who has 1 appearance for Norway and has played for Club Brugge, Cercle Brugge and Eintracht Braunschweig amongst others, scored both the goals. In 2020 they finished 7th in the table, after being in 3rd place at the halfway mark, and Bakenga was the top scorer with 15 goals.
The Odd squad is virtually all Norwegian, with the only foreigners being Faroese midfielder Gilli Rolantsson, who has 45 caps for his country, forward Onyekachi Ugwuadu is Nigerian, and the reserve goal-keeper, Leopold Wahlstedt, is Swedish.
Veteran defender Magnus Levken has made 4 appearances for Norway back in 2012 and joined from Valerenga in the close season, and John Kitolano, elder brother of Joshua, was a youth player at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Sarpsborg is 90km south-east of Oslo, which takes just over an hour by car and is less than 30km from the border with Sweden. The town has a population of around 55,000 and is known as the site of one of the largest breweries in the country.
Its football club were first promoted to the highest level in 2011 but were relegated after just a single season. However, they returned the following year and have remain into the Eliteserien ever since. In 2020 they finished 12th.
Home matches are played at the 8,022 capacity Sarpsborg Stadium and home colours are blue shirts with a white band down the centre of the shirt, and white shirts. However, they wore the change kit of all claret with a yellow band for this game.
The journey from Sarpsborg to Skien is approximately 135km and takes nearly 2 and half hours by road, The temperature at kick-off was expected to be 11 degrees and a dry day was forecast.
The Sarpsborg squad has a few more foreigners than the Odds one. Striker Ibrahima Kone comes from Mali, full-back Suleyman Bojang has 6 caps for Gambia, midfielder Anton Saletros has one cap for Sweden, midfielder Emil Palsson has appeared once for Iceland and Felix Michel has 13 caps for Lebanon. Centre-back Mikael Dyrestam played once for Sweden but has since won 8 caps for Guinea.
Experienced goal-keeper Anders Kristiansen was called up to the Norway national squad last October but didn’t get to play. He had previously played in Belgium for Union St Gilloise, Nicolai Naess includes Heerenveen and Colombus Crew amongst his former clubs
The odds on Odds with Bet365 were 5/4 favourites, with Sarpsborg at 23/10 and the draw offered at 11/5.
Odds made two changes from their previous match with Wallem coming in for Owusu, resulting in Levkun dropping back into defence, whilst Svendsen replace Jorgensen. Sarpsborg also made two changes from their only game, with Jonathan Lindseth replacing Ofkir upfront and Bojang replacing Wichne at wing-back.
Norwegian football has a bit of a reputation for direct, long ball football after the successful national team of the 1990s under Egil Olsen. However, Odds started the game by patiently playing the ball around at the back and looking to play the ball on the floor. However, Sarpsborg started with much more purpose and looked the more dangerous. Sarpsborg central defender Utvik was the most distinctive player on show, wearing what appeared to be a black skullcap
Odds were in the wars early on, with Kaasa, Kitolano and Bakenga all requiring lengthy treatment in the first 20 minutes, before Sarpsborg’s Kone was brought down heavily. Consequently, nearly five extra minutes were played at the end of the first half.
Sarpsborg opened the scoring in the 27th minute. Halvorsen’s left-footed cross into the Odds 6 yard box could only be deflected up in the air by Wallem and Lindseth reacted the quickest with an overhead kick into the net from a couple of yards, just before team-mate Kone was about to shoot.
The visitors then had two more chances to extend their lead. After an overlapping run down the right, Bojang’s cross to the edge of 6 yard box was turned just over the bar by Kone, after which Saletros’ cross-cum-shot drifted just wide.
The best Odds could muster in response was a short on the turn from the edge of the area by Svendsen in added on time that went well wide. At half-time, Odd had 59% of the possession but it was Sarpsborg who deservedly led.
The second half followed a similar pattern, as Odd continued to probe patiently, whilst Sarpsborg defended and looked to hit on the counter attack. Joachim Thomassen looked to be the main danger for Sarpsborg, with several impressive runs down the left. In the 57th minute he got to the by-line but his chipped cross was just too high for Kone. Bojang followed up but his shot from an acute angle was blocked for a corner.
After 73 minutes another break ended with a Thomassen shot into the arms of the keeper, and three minutes later after a surging run he released Kone, whose shot was saved by keeper Rossbach’s outstretched leg at the near post.
In between, a defensive error by Utvik gave Odd their best chance, as his poor header back to the keeper was intercepted by Lauritsen but Kristiansen was quickly off his line to narrow the angle and make a good block.
Odd came ever closer to the equaliser 9 minutes from time when Bakenga ran on to a through ball from Bjortuft but his first effort was parried by Kristiansen. However, the ball rolled back to the Odd striker and with the goal at his mercy his close range shot was bravely saved.
Sarpsborg attempted to run down the clock by making a raft of substitutions, and as the game moved into injury time, Odd finally launched a long ball into the Sarpsborg area. Utvik’s header went across the face of the goal where Bakenga controlled it for the on rushing Jorgensen to fire home from around 10 yards.
Odds will probably feel they deserved their late goal as they had 65% of the possession overall, but Sarpsborg will feel it was two points dropped.
Odds BK : Rossbach - Sorensen, Bjortuft, Levkun, John Kitolano – Joshua Kitolano, Wallem ( Jorgensen ), Kaasa – Bakenga, Lauritsen, Svendsen ( Larsen )
Sarpsborg 08 – Kristiansen – Odegaard, Utvik, Dyrestam – Bojang, Saletros ( Palsson ), Naess, Thomassen – Halvorsen ( Wichne ), Kone ( Rashad ), Lindseth ( Soltvedt )
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