Preview: Norway vs. Cyprus - prediction, team news, lineups

The two winless nations in Euro 2024 qualifying Group A seek to break their respective ducks on Tuesday as Norway welcome Cyprus to the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo.

Stale Solbakken's men failed to hang onto a one-goal lead in a dramatic 2-1 loss to Scotland at the weekend, while the visitors came up short against Georgia by the same scoreline.

Match preview

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After 60 scoreless minutes between Norway and Scotland in which the Lions were in the ascendancy, Manchester City record-breaker Erling Braut Haaland went down under pressure from Ryan Porteous inside the area to controversially win his side a penalty, which he converted despite the best efforts of Angus Gunn.

However, Norway's recent defensive lapses came back to bite them again, as Lyndon Dykes poked home the equalising goal for Scotland with 87 minutes gone before Kenny McLean kept his composure to curl home into the bottom corner only moments later, sending the Tartan Army into delirium while leaving the Norwegian faithful to rue another missed opportunity.

With a 3-0 loss to Spain and 1-1 draw with Georgia to their name from March's opening fixtures, Norway's wait for a first Euros final appearance since 2000 will go on barring a belated turnaround in fortunes, as the world's 44th-ranked nation occupy fourth place in the standings, albeit just three points worse off than Georgia in second place.

In spite of the presence of Haaland and silky Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard, Norway - who also failed to make it into the top tier of the Nations League for the 2024-25 campaign - have now gone winless in their last four games, and their only triumph from their last seven contests came against the Republic of Ireland in a November friendly.

While Norway are now without a clean sheet in eight successive matches, the hosts have not failed to score in a Euro qualifier on home soil since 2015, and their visitors are hardly adept when it comes to defending their own goal either.

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Norway and Cyprus can now empathise when it comes to demoralising late goals against them, as the visitors to Oslo were on course for a hard-earned point against Georgia after Ioannis Pittas cancelled out Georges Mikautadze's opener from 12 yards.

The Cypriots did an admirable job of keeping Napoli wing king Khvicha Kvaratskhelia quiet, but they had no such plan for Zuriko Davitashvili, who notched the winning goal just 10 minutes after coming off the bench to deny Temur Ketsbaia's men their first point in the section.

With a 3-0 defeat to Scotland also an unwanted blot on the notebook, Cyprus sit dead last in the section as the only nation without so much as a draw in Group A, but they have a game in hand on Norway and will leapfrog their hosts with a long-awaited triumph in Oslo.

Ketsbaia's charges could even rise above Nations League finalists Spain with a six-goal swing in their favour, although such a scenario is fanciful for a side that have let in at least two goals in their last six matches, and each of their last five Euro qualifying contests have now ended in defeat.

Cypriot fans should also look away now, as their side have lost all 11 of their previous competitive and non-competitive meetings with Norway, who have scored at least twice in all of those triumphs, including a pair of 2-0 successes in the 2018-19 Nations League.

Team News

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Rather than choose between one of Haaland and Alexander Sorloth, Solbakken started both strikers in the defeat to Scotland, although the latter was taken off with an unspecified injury concern 11 minutes from time.

Sorloth is not reported to be nursing anything serious, but Mohamed Elyounoussi will be waiting in the wings and may even be considered for a starting role over Ola Solbakken too.

With both of Scotland's goals coming after Solbakken had made his five changes, the Norway boss may be reluctant to shuffle the pack too much from the first whistle, as Haaland seeks to draw level with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Tore Andre Flo with a 23rd goal for the Lions.

As for their 111th-ranked visitors, Como defender Nicholas Ioannou will be back from a ban in time for the clash with Norway, and his return is particularly timely after Andreas Karo came off injured in the recent loss to Georgia.

Ioannou should be a straight swap for his stricken teammate if Karo is not passed fit for Tuesday, while Pittas's successful spot kick should earn him another starting role over Demetris Christofi, who is the highest scorer in the current Cyprus squad with nine strikes to his name.

Norway possible starting lineup:
Nyland; Ryerson, Ostigard, Strandberg, Meling; Odegaard, Berg, Aursnes; Sorloth, Haaland, Elyounoussi

Cyprus possible starting lineup:
Dimitriou; Gogic, Ioannou, Laifis; Antoniou, Charalampous, Kousoulos, Correia; Kastanos, Loizou; Pittas

We say: Norway 3-1 Cyprus

History should repeat itself in more ways than one here, as Norway make it 12 wins from 12 against their lowly foes with another multiple-goal showing.

The hosts' defensive deficiencies will hinder their chances of a victory to nil, but the Lions possess the necessary firepower to put Cyprus to the sword and force their way back into top-two contention.

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