A good pick here, where Ireland can’t be favorite.

To Stephen Kenny’s credit, he has maintained a clear sense of direction on that path to the Euros, and the squad selection for this match is testament to that. He deluged the squad with debutants in 2020 and fit them into a balanced, coherent system in 2021, and has had 2022 to identify the programme’s recurring glitches. (A failure to hold onto leads; coughing up goals shortly after half-time; an inability to deal with too much individual rustiness).

The squad is now its phase of evolution, with midfielder Will Smallbone and teenage striker Evan Ferguson the only new call ups for this window. Kenny has admitted Ferguson’s call-up is “premature”, due to the injuries to Scott Hogan, Will Keane, Troy Parrott and Adam Idah.

Despite Kenny signing a contract extension in March, he still has his critics and while there has been improvement during his reign, success or otherwise is largely measured in qualification for major tournaments. A heart-breaking penalty shoot-out defeat in a play-off semi-final he inherited from predecessor Mick McCarthy cost Ireland a trip to Euro 2020 and they subsequently finished third behind Serbia and Portugal in their World Cup group.

Ireland’s last game ended in unnecessary last-gasp drama as they were made to pay for relaxing. Goals from John Egan and Obafemi appeared to have eased them to a comfortable Nations League victory over Armenia when Artak Dashyan and Eduard Spertsyan struck within two minutes of each other, and it took a stoppage-time penalty from Robbie Brady after both Hovhannes Hambardzumyan and Dashyan had been sent off to secure the points. Kenny’s men cannot afford any repeat of that carelessness if they are to prosper against the Norwegians, who are ranked 42nd by FIFA, seven places higher than the Republic.

Haaland isn’t here but Norway are not without talent. The Norwegians are no one-man team with Arsenal skipper Martin Odegaard, Real Sociedad’s on-loan RB Leipzig striker Alexander Sorloth and Celta Vigo’s Jorgen Strand Larsen also among their squad.

Norway are coached by former Wolves manager Staale Solbakken, and his 4-1-4-1 system is unlikely to offer much of a preview of what comes against the French next March. Kenny described them as “one of the better sides” not to qualify for the World Cup, and no European nation has been as outspoken against it.

Norway is a much better team and it’s a very difficult side to beat. I dont see Ireland able to do it, as they recently just managed to beat very weak national teams such as Armenia, Luxemburg, Lithuania or Scotland.

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

选得不错，爱尔兰肯定不是首选。

值得赞扬的是，斯蒂芬·肯尼在通往欧洲杯的道路上一直保持着清晰的方向感，这场比赛的阵容选择就是对这一点的证明。他在2020年为球队引进了大量的新人，并在2021年将他们整合到一个平衡、连贯的体系中，并在2022年发现了该项目反复出现的故障。(没有抓住线索;半场结束后不久就咳出进球;无法处理太多的个人生锈问题)。

球队现在正处于发展阶段，中场威尔·斯莫尔波恩和少年前锋埃文·弗格森是仅有的两名新球员。肯尼承认弗格森的征召“为时过早”，因为斯科特·霍根、威尔·基恩、特洛伊·帕罗特和亚当·艾达都受伤了。

尽管肯尼在今年3月与球队续约，但他仍然受到了批评。尽管肯尼在执教期间取得了进步，但成功与否主要取决于他是否有资格参加重大赛事。在他从前任麦克·麦卡锡手中接过的附加赛半决赛中，一场令人心碎的点球大战让爱尔兰无缘2020年欧洲杯，随后他们在世界杯小组中排名第三，落后于塞尔维亚和葡萄牙。

爱尔兰的最后一场比赛以不必要的最后时刻的戏剧性结束，因为他们不得不为放松而付出代价。伊根和奥巴费米的进球似乎帮助他们轻松战胜亚美尼亚，阿塔克·达夏扬和爱德华·斯佩茨扬在两分钟内相继进球，补时阶段的罗比·布雷迪在霍夫汉内斯·汉巴尔祖姆扬和达夏扬都被红牌罚下后才确保了积分。肯尼的球员们如果要在与挪威的比赛中取得成功，就不能再犯这种粗心大意的错误了。挪威在国际足联排名第42位，比挪威共和国高7位。

哈兰德不在，但挪威也不是没有人才。挪威人并不是一个人的球队，阿森纳队长马丁·奥德加德，皇家社会租借来的莱比锡前锋亚历山大·索洛斯和维戈塞尔塔的约根·斯特兰德·拉森也在他们的阵容中。

挪威的教练是前狼队主帅索巴肯(Staale Solbakken)，他的4-1-4-1阵型不太可能为明年3月对阵法国队的比赛提供多少预演。肯尼称他们是无缘世界杯的“最好的球队之一”，没有任何一个欧洲国家像他们这样直言不讳地反对。

挪威是一支更好的球队，是一支很难击败的球队。我不认为爱尔兰能做到这一点，因为他们最近刚刚成功击败了非常弱的国家队，如亚美尼亚，卢森堡，立陶宛或苏格兰。