Haaland’s scoring touch deserted him last night (Picture: AMA/Getty Images)
Erling Haaland’s performance against Kazakhstan was labelled ‘one of the worst things I’ve seen’ by a former Norway manager.
The Manchester City star has started the new Premier League season in electric form with seven goals in three appearances, including back-to-back hat-tricks against Ipswich Town and West Ham United.
But the 24-year-old struggled to carry that form into the international break with Norway held to a goalless draw away to Kazakhstan on Friday.
The side captained by Arsenal star Martin Odegaard which also boasts RB Leipzig star Antonio Nusa and Atletico Madrid’s Alexander Sorloth – who scored 23 La Liga goals last season – failed to break down arguably the weakest team in their Nations League group.
Norway’s TV2 labelled the result ‘deplorable’ with former national team and Wimbledon boss Egil Olsen not holding back in his damning assessment.
‘We have two world-class players in the team’, Olsen said. ‘Today Erling Braut Haaland was unfortunately far below par. It’s one of the worst things I’ve seen from Haaland.
‘Martin Odegaard flashes at times, but I have also seen him better. One point here is too bad.
Haaland has been collecting match balls for fun again this season ( CameraSport via Getty Images)
‘There are no other teams in this group that will concede points to Kazakhstan.’
Speaking after the game, Arsenal captain Norway said: ‘It’s a disappointment, we do a lot of good things but we also don’t score. It’s difficult, nobody has any good answers as to exactly why we manage to score.
Head coach Ståle Solbakken added: ‘We have great faith in what we do, and we are quite calm.
‘Now we have to take care that we don’t get countered to death at the end. But it is clear that we travelled here with hopes and expectations of taking three points, and we should have managed that.’
While he has been unable to fire Norway into a major international competition, Haaland boasts a very impressive return of 31 goals in 34 appearances for his country.
He is already just two off matching the long-standing record of Jorgen Juve, who hit his tally between 1928 and 1937.
Haaland will have the chance to close that gap when Norway take on Austria on Monday.
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