Today’s game is going to be a fun and exciting game, and for several reasons. First, Croatia is in eleventh place in the FIFA rankings and is a very good team. Second, there are several good players from the Norwegian Tippeliga who get the chance to show what they are good for. And that we have an 18 year old debutant in the starting lineup today. Croatia is a team that traditionally has played good football and they have very good technical players. It sounds pretty good in the ears when you hear names like Modric, Kranjcar, Eduardo when you’re talking about beautiful football. At the same time our players are the form players in the Norwegian Tippeliga and that they are interested in giving their best. Of course we cannot expect us to come to Croatia to run the game, especially with a newly composed team that we have today. But it is important for many of our young guys who do not have many games on the national team that they will get a feel of the level and can get some valuable experience. So I will just say good luck to us and good luck to all of you back in Norway, and that we are focusing on getting a good match.

Morten Gamst Pedersen