Solbakken Rested His Best Players Against France. Now Norway Must Answer for It at World Cup 2026
Dembele’s three goals came in 25 minutes. Norway’s substitute goalkeeper Egil Selvik faced nine shots on target and saved five of them, which tells you both how good Selvik was and how relentless France were. Jorgen Strand Larsen then missed a penalty in the 50th minute that could have made it 3-2. Norway’s xG for the match finished at 1.70. France’s was 1.50. Pick whichever number you prefer both look absurd given the scoreline, and the penalty miss explains most of that gap.
The Deschamps decision that worked is the one nobody will credit him for: he trusted his shape to do the damage without tinkering. France lined up in a 4-2-3-1 and simply let their front four run at a defence that had never played together at this level. Dembele had Mbappe to his left and Michael Olise drifting centrally, and Norway had no answer for the angles they created. For the first goal in the 7th minute, Mbappe received the ball in space on the right, pulled it back, and Dembele drove it low into the bottom-left corner from 18 yards. Clean and simple. For the second in the 20th, Dembele found a pocket of space between three defenders outside the box and curled a left-footer beyond Selvik’s dive. For the third in the 32nd, Aurelien Tchouameni played him through centrally and Dembele slotted into the bottom-left corner from the middle of the box. Deschamps did not overcomplicate it. He put his best attackers in positions where they could hurt people and let them get on with it.
The one call he might revisit is keeping Mbappe on until the 87th minute in a match already decided long before then. Mbappe ended without a goal, though his two assists in the first half were central to everything. France can afford that kind of conversation. Norway cannot.
Solbakken’s logic was defensible on paper. Both teams had already qualified. The Ivory Coast match in the round of 32 matters far more than group position. Protecting Haaland and Odegaard from injury or suspension made sense in isolation. The problem is what actually happened. Norway gave up three goals in 32 minutes to a team that was also rotating, since Deschamps made six changes of his own from his previous lineup. Selvik conceded four and saved five, which is a decent return against this France attack, but the defence in front of him looked electric with tension from the very first minute. Mbappe nearly scored after 21 seconds. France had three shots on target inside the opening five minutes. Norway’s rested backline had no warm-up period for the intensity of what was coming.
Truth is, Solbakken’s gamble was not losing by four. His gamble was the message it sent. Norway arrived at a World Cup group stage match having already reduced their ambitions to the next round before kickoff, and the players who started here will carry the memory of being dismantled in 32 minutes into the dressing room. Whether that affects the players who did not start Haaland, Odegaard, Nyland is something only that group knows.
The number that follows Solbakken into the Ivory Coast match is 0.79. That was the xG value on Strand Larsen’s penalty, which Maignan saved toward the bottom-right corner. Had Norway converted at 3-2, with an hour to play and Solbakken ready to bring on his strongest players at half-time, this becomes a completely different match and a completely different narrative. That is not an excuse for the first half. But it is the moment that ended any realistic chance of a recovery.
Deschamps leaves Foxborough with nine points from three games, a clean knockout draw to manage, and Dembele carrying four World Cup goals into the round of 16. France are not without their own problems. Mbappe went 90 minutes without a goal for the first time in this tournament, and the defence allowed Norway’s second-string attack to generate 1.70 xG, which is more than France should be comfortable with against better opposition.
Verdict. Deschamps is in control of his squad and his tournament. His one job now is calibrating Mbappe’s load without disrupting the chemistry that Dembele has brought to this attack. Solbakken gets into the knockout round, which was the goal, but the manner of this defeat will sharpen every question about whether Norway are genuinely equipped to go further or whether they are a side built entirely around one player, and the one player did not play.
That is the question Haaland has to answer in Dallas. Not Solbakken.