FRANCE 98 – Norway – E. Olsen: “We have 20% chance to defeat Brazil”
“The choice for the team is more difficult than before. One has to evaluate the players according to their present physical fitness and according to the type of game we want to play.
The players who will play against BRAZIL (Group A), Tuesday 23 June in the stade Vélodrome in MARSEILLE are the following: Frode GRODAS (1), Henning BERG (4), Dan EGGEN (15), Ronny JOHNSEN (3), Stig Inge BJORNEBYE (5), Havard FLO (17), Roar STRAND (22), Kjetil REKDAL (10), Øyvind LEONHARDSEN (8), Vidar RISETH (21) Toar André FLO (9).
The positions that are most difficult to choose are the centre halves. Today I’ve evaluated their condition and general physical fitness. The players speed and the ability to keep up the pressure on the opposing team. If that doesn’t work the we will take the consequences.
We can feel a wave of optimism because we like to be in the situation of being the challengers, to surprise the opponent and apply an effective pressure in midfield. With regard to defence, I didn’t really have any choice.
The BRAZIL team will be better prepared than for the friendly match in Oslo (NORWAY 4- BRAZIL 2). Obviously, you can’t compare the two matches.
The Norwegian fans are counting on our victory.
I think we have a 50-50 chance of getting though to the last sixteen, and a 20% chance to defeat BRAZIL. We’ll be happy if we get pass this stage, but we are prepared for the possibility that we might loose.
The two previous matches were not very convincing, but they were better than we could have hoped for.
As for the other match in the group, SCOTLAND-MOROCCO, we won’t think about it… at least not until the 2nd Half.
Regarding the temperature, we can always hope for 2°C, but that’s not very realistic at this time of year in MARSEILLE.