Netherlands vs Norway

Netherlands host Norway for this final FIFA World Cup 2022 qualification group round match at De Kuip in Rotterdam. Stakes are indeed super-high for both teams! Let's take a closer look..

Indeed, going into this early Wednesday Beijing time final round of matches these two teams are in an intense battle for the first position in this group with Turkey. The Dutch are the current group leaders with 20 points in the bank - both Norway and Turkey have earned 18 points so far. One of the three will fail to even make it to the extra play offs rounds organized in 2022 for the teams who have finished second after the group stage. To make it extra interesting Montenegro and Turkey play today at the same time as this match takes place,. A draw would be enough for Norway if Turkey will lose in Montenegro. A possible but not very likely scenario in my opinion. It is pretty probable that Norway - 3rd in the group with worse goal difference (15:6) than Turkey (25:15) - would have to win this one - and as a result possibly even win the group and depending on Turkey's match - qualify directly for The World Cup in Qatar. However, I see a pretty big difference in class between Netherlands and Norway by raw class and see this scenario - or Norway even winning - as a pretty unlikely one.. Especially taking a look at players' individual skill level the hosts are much better. As a result of the situation in the group Norway will most probably have to take risk here, especially of they end up trailing which increases the chance of the hosts winning by more than just one goal's difference! I really do like the way they Netherlands play the game - pretty offensive, aggressive football and also have a good structure in their game and a good coach. They must be very annoyed screwing up the match three days ago in Montenegro after leading 2-0 in the second half. They just seemed to somehow lose concentration and perhaps were under-estimating the hosts. They did, however, have 69% ball possession and would have deserved to win! Today I expect Barcelona's elite striker M. Depay to cause a lot of trouble for the Norwegians' pretty good defense.

The teams played some 2.5 months ago in Oslo and it was a 1-1 draw but I must say, after watching the match twice, that Netherlands were clearly the better team with 66% ball possession and created 16 scoring chances - Norway had seven. The Dutch also had more shots on target, attacks, dangerous attacks and completed passes. Norway's offense will suffer immensely because of missing one of the best strikers on the planet - Borussia Dortmund's Håland because of injury. He is the only World-class player for Norway. Without him Norway's offense is bad - they even failed to score against a lowly team Latvia three days ago - at home!

To sum up, despite a draw being enough for the hosts the win the group - as they have very good goal difference - I do not think they will choose a cautious approach for this match in front of their amazing fans. I, in fact, think they have over 50% chance to win by at least two goals difference. The hosts -1.5 goals handicap is my pick for my growing fan-base!

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荷兰将在鹿特丹举办2022年世界杯预选赛小组赛的最后一场比赛。对两支球队来说，赌注都非常高!让我们仔细看看…

的确，在北京时间周三凌晨的最后一轮比赛中，这两支球队将与土耳其队争夺小组第一的位置。目前荷兰队以20分领跑，挪威和土耳其都获得了18分。这三支球队中有一支甚至无法进入2022年为小组赛后获得第二名的球队组织的附加赛。更有趣的是，黑山和土耳其今天同时进行比赛。如果土耳其在黑山输掉比赛，一场平局对挪威来说就足够了。在我看来，这是可能的，但可能性不大。挪威在小组赛中排名第三，净胜球差(15比6)低于土耳其(25比15)，因此很有可能赢得这场比赛，甚至有可能在小组赛中获胜(取决于土耳其的比赛)，直接晋级卡塔尔世界杯。然而，我认为荷兰和挪威在等级上有很大的不同，而且这种情况——或者挪威获胜——是不太可能发生的。特别是从球员的个人技术水平来看，东道主的表现要好得多。由于小组的情况，挪威很可能不得不在这里冒险，特别是他们最终落后，这增加了东道主获胜的机会，而不仅仅是一个球的差距!我真的很喜欢荷兰队踢球的方式，他们进攻很有侵略性，而且他们的比赛结构很好，教练也很好。他们一定很恼火，三天前在黑山的比赛中下半场以2-0领先，结果搞砸了比赛。它们似乎失去了注意力，可能低估了宿主。然而，他们确实有69%的控球率，理应获胜!今天我预计巴塞罗那的精英前锋M. Depay会给挪威人相当好的防守带来很多麻烦。

两个月前，两队在奥斯陆打了一场1比1的比赛，但我必须说，在看了两场比赛后，荷兰队显然是更好的球队，控球率达到66%，创造了16次进球机会，而挪威只有7次。荷兰队也有更多的射门、进攻、危险的进攻和完整的传球。由于世界上最好的前锋之一多特蒙德的Håland因伤缺阵，挪威的进攻将受到极大的打击。他是挪威唯一的世界级球员。没有他，挪威的进攻很糟糕——三天前他们甚至连主场对阵拉脱维亚的进球都没有!

总而言之，尽管一场平局足以让东道主赢得小组——因为他们有非常好的净胜球——我不认为他们会在他们惊人的球迷面前选择谨慎的比赛方式。事实上，我认为他们有超过50%的机会以至少两个进球的差距获胜。东道主-1.5个进球的障碍是我为我不断增长的粉丝群选择的!