Spain – Norway

The visitors will lose without their leader in the line-up

Before the start of the European Championship qualification, Spain are already among the top five contenders for gold medals at the end of the tournament in 2024. In the same qualifying group as the Iberians, in addition to Norway, are Scotland, Cyprus and Georgia. Naturally, the Spaniards are the clear favourites here and their upcoming opponents are expected to compete with the Scottish and Georgian teams. According to specialist website transfermarkt, the host side's squad for the upcoming match is rated as one of the most expensive in world football at €806 million. The Norwegian national team are currently valued by experts at half the price of €401.6m. Almost half of that sum is worth Erling Holand. At the same time, the Spanish national team squad is much more even in terms of class and, consequently, the value of players. Bookmakers have identified the Red Fury as the favourite for the upcoming meeting, offering odds of 1.35 to win. The Spanish team had an ignominious World Cup in Qatar. First, they barely qualified for the play-offs, beating only modest Costa Rica in the group stage, and then leaving in the 1/8 finals thanks to the efforts of Morocco. The result led to the departure of Luis Enrique, who was replaced by Luis de la Fuente, who has coached Spanish teams of almost every age in the last ten years. The upcoming match will be the first for the new coach at the helm of the main team of the country. In general, Luis de la Fuente takes a good "material". The main squad of the Spanish team consists of a large number of high-profile players, who last autumn won the right to participate in the "Final Four" of the Nations League. The Norwegian national team did not appear in Qatar, having lost their Mundial qualification to Turkey and the Netherlands. The Norwegians also lost to Slovenia and Serbia in their last official meetings of 2022, conceding promotion to the Nations League A to the latter. Shockingly for the Scandinavian side, Erling Holand will not be helping his side in Spain as he left the ground a few days before the match due to injury. It is unlikely that the visitors even have a chance of a draw.