The Norway national football team started to succeed since Euro 2000 having topped the qualifying group. At the main tournament the team surprisingly defeated Spain in play-off but then lost to Yugoslavia and scored draw with Slovenia. As a result Spain and Yugoslavia progressed from the group.
The qualifying campaign for 2002 World Cup was unsuccessful because of the squad’s four loses and four draws in the last 10 games.
Norway finished second in its group in the Euro 2004 qualifying campaign, having lost to Denmark, and was going to play head to head games to enter the finals, but was defeated by Spain in home and away matches. After that Nils Johan Semb, the team’s head coach, resigned.
In 2004 Age Hareide headed the squad and in the 2006 World Cup tournament Norway finished second in its group and played head to head games with the Czech Republic. Both home and away games ended in a 0-1 loss for Norway.
The team started qualifying campaign for Euro 2008 winning Hungary 4-1 and Moldavia 2-0. Then a failure followed and Norway lost to Greece and Bosnia and Herzegovina. After playing a draw with Turkey 2-2 the team managed to defeat Malta, Hungary and Moldavia. In the end Norway failed to make it out from the group finishing third.
Norway is ranked 24th in the FIFA World Ranking.
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