Norway forced to prepare indoors for Wales as Martin Odegaard eyes improvement

Phil Blanche, Press Association, Oslo

Martin Odegaard insists Norway have adapted to snow disrupting their Nations League preparation in Oslo as they bid to avenge October’s defeat to Wales.

Norway were forced to cancel Thursday’s training session at Ullevaal Stadium as heavy snow fell in the Norwegian capital and train indoors instead.

“It’s not ideal, but you have to adapt to the situation,” said Norway captain Odegaard

“It’s not the end of the world and we managed to do other things.

“We know the system really well, we’ve worked together for such a long time, so it’s not a big deal.”

Ground staff cleared snow from the Ullevaal Stadium pitch on Friday morning.

The turf was replaced in the summer after it was criticised following a March friendly against Switzerland, but the surface remains an area of concern.

Norway are bottom of Group A4, level on three points with Wales after four games but below them on their head-to head record after losing 2-1 in Cardiff six weeks ago.

“Our level was not where it should be,” said Arsenal midfielder Odegaard.

“It’s probably the only game for a long time where we haven’t been playing to our standards.

“Wales is a good team, a competitive team, with lots of good players in big leagues, and a physical team as well.

“We were prepared for that, but on the day we were just not showing up to our standards. That’s something we want to show at home, we can do a lot better.”

Norway boss Stale Solbakken underlined the importance of the fixture, saying: “It’s like a boxing game, going head-to-head, fist-to-fist.

“We were very passive in the first half against Wales. We had no intensity in our play. We were decent with the ball, but we were crap without the ball.

“I think the first half was our worst performance in two years, we have to be honest about that.”