FRANCE 98 – Norway – H. Berg: “Faced with Ronaldo, you have to anticipate”

Comments made in the stade Carcassonne, Aix en Provence:

Frode GRODAS, Captain (1):

“The team is relaxed as we contemplate the match against BRAZIL. We’re not starting out as favourites but we could get a good result.

The friendly match against BRAZIL is past history. Nevertheless, I think that the Brazilians will want to get their revenge. In any case, we’ll make them play.”

“We have trained well, bringing in some slight structural changes in order to correct errors of the previous matches.

Roberto CARLOS (BRAZIL, 6) isn’t easy to play against. He’s very fast and an attacker, like RONALDO (BRAZIL, 9).

The most important thing about playing RONALDO, is not to give him any space… to shadow him, to prevent him from turning around: you have to anticipate.

After the SCOTLAND match, we were disappointed with our performance but we are aware of our errors. I’m optimistic about this match.”

“I’m pleased to be in the team, I feel physical and mentally fit. I think that the coach has picked me for my speed and my ‘aerial’ game which will be a great asset to counter CAFU (BRAZIL, 2), who, for a defender, is also an ‘attacking’ player. He often moves up, which could enable me sweep up the wing in the case of counter attack.

I appreciate the entire organisation around the team for this World Cup, whether it be the security measures or the French Organising Committee (CFO) volunteers assigned to the group.

We also saw the NIGERIA-SPAIN (Group D) match from the stands. It was a very good match. It’s the only match I was able to watch, apart from the matches of our group, in order to analyse their game.”