FRANCE 98 – Norway – H. Flo: “We've got our backs against the wall”

Comments from Saint-André-des-Eaux (Loire-Atlantique)

“We still have a few days ahead of us to perfect some of our tactics. After our two matches, which I consider as failures, all our players are hungry for revenge. We really thought the two first matches would bring us six points. We now have to focus on our next match against BRAZIL. We’ve got our backs against the wall, you could even say against a mountain, but we’ll do our best to qualify. If we’re to have any hope of beating the favourites, we’ll have to alternate between short and long passes, which we failed to do against MOROCCO and SCOTLAND.”

“We didn’t get on top of our two last opponents. We simply didn’t have enough initiative to hope to win those games. In the next match against BRAZIL, our defence will have to be well-organised, our midfielders will have to play a steady game, and our attackers will have to be fast. We’ll have to break through their defence and make long passes to challenge BRAZIL. Our qualification for the second round depends on our game’s coherence. We’ll have to mark their fullbacks closely and we can’t leave any ground open. That will be the key to our success.”