Wales head to Oslo to challenge Norway amid repair work
Wales, coached by Craig Bellamy who took over as head coach in July 2024, travel to Oslo to face Norway in a Nations League match at Ullevaal Stadion on Saturday, 14 November, 17:00 GMT.
The first snow of the season has been cleared from Ullevaal Stadion, with tractors on the pitch and Norwegian Football Federation staff shovelling as groundstaff work to restore a surface that has caused problems in the past; Erling Haaland questioned its condition back in March before it was fixed during the summer. By their recent high standards, Norway themselves need a repair job: after going through 2025 unbeaten and reaching the World Cup quarter-finals, they have lost three consecutive matches for the first time in a decade, two of those defeats coming against Portugal and contrasted with a 2016 run that included losses in Azerbaijan and Belarus.
Norway enter the fixture as a team built around what the article describes as a golden generation, with Erling Haaland, Martin Odegaard and a number of other leading players. Their path to the World Cup included twice defeating Italy to qualify for the nation’s first major tournament since 1998, and a last-16 victory over Brazil in New Jersey reinforced their standing on the global stage.
Those expectations make Norway’s position in Group A4 surprising: they sit bottom with one win from four games, level with third-placed Wales on three points but below them on head-to-head. There is much at stake in Oslo — either team could still qualify for the Nations League quarter-finals, but the immediate priority is to avoid relegation from the top tier and finishing third or higher would guarantee top seeding for Euro 2028 qualifying. "The way we look at it is this is the type of game we want to be playing in," Wales head coach Craig Bellamy tells BBC Sport Wales. "I see a collective team that you have to like but, individually, very much so as well. So that's a good challenge. "We've all been aware of their threat. The World Cup proved that. And I just don't see them going anywhere for the next five, 10 years either." He added: "It'll go a long way to us having an opportunity of being seeded one, which is huge for us, but it isn't going to be given to us," Bellamy adds. "We have to go out there tomorrow and try and take it. So, for me, it's fight fire with fire. I'm expecting them to really come with big intensity and it's up to us to match it. "So, to me, it's a shootout."
Wales arrive in Oslo following a period in which the nation has drawn on the afterglow of Euro 2016, when a side featuring Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey reached the semi-finals after a 58-year absence from major tournaments; that run is credited here with helping pave the way for subsequent qualifications at Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup. Norway head coach Ståle Solbakken offered a comparison between the countries: "I think that we are both small countries, so I can agree on that," he said. "Everyone will remember that summer of 2026 in Norway, as Wales did 10 years ago."
Captain Ben Davies, the 33-year-old Tottenham Hotspur defender, remains one of the survivors of Wales’ earlier generation and played an important role in Wales’ win over Norway in Cardiff last month, at the heart of a defence which managed to contain Haaland. Davies also featured in a Spurs backline that denied the Norwegian a goal in a 4-0 win at Manchester City two years ago. "They've got players now performing at the highest level in world football and starring in that as well," he said. "Great for Norwegian football, a challenge for us, but one we're looking forward to." On Haaland specifically he added: "He's a world-class player," and: "Maybe he had an off-night [in Cardiff] but we worked hard, stuck to our job and we defended really well. Hopefully we'll do that again."
Wales' victory in Cardiff last month remains their only win of this Nations League campaign and, in Oslo, they will attempt to become only the third visiting side in three years — alongside Portugal and world champions Spain — to win a competitive match there. The fixture is being shown live on BBC iPlayer, BBC Two Wales, BBC Sounds, BBC Radio Wales, Radio Cymru and 5 Live Sports Extra, and covered on the BBC Sport website and app, plus live text commentary.
The outcome in Oslo will directly influence which side avoids relegation from the Nations League top tier and which can secure the top seeding that would affect Euro 2028 qualifying; either team can still reach the Nations League quarter-finals, but avoiding relegation and securing seeding are the immediate priorities.
