EC qualifier in Tirana, June 5, 1999 ==================================== Albania - Norway 1-2 (1-1) Qemal Stafa stadium Att: 12 000 0-1 Steffen Iversen (3) 1-1 Igli Tare (16) 1-2 Tore André Flo (83) Referee: Livio Bazzoli, Italia. Yellow card: Tore Pedersen (48), Erik Mykland (85), Norway, Ilir Shulku (49) Altin Haxhi (89), Albania. Line-ups -------- Albania (4-4-2): Foto Strakosha - Ilir Shulku - Ervin Fakaj (Arjan Bellaj from 63.), Arjan Xhumba, Altin Haxhi - Alban Bushi, Rudi Vata, Altin Lala, Bledar Kola (Albert Duro from 70.) - Igli Tare, Altin Rrakli (Erion Bogdani from 81.). Norway (4-5-1): Frode Olsen - Alf-Inge Håland, Tore Pedersen (Bjørn Otto Bragstad from 63), Erik Hoftun, André Bergdølmo - Steffen Iversen, Ståle Solbakken (Vidar Riseth from 90.), Kjetil Rekdal, Erik Mykland, Petter Rudi (Tore André Dahlum from 79.) - Tore André Flo. Other games ----------- 05.06.99 Georgia - Greece 1-2 05.06.99 Latvia - Slovenia 1-2 09.06.99 Albania - Slovenia 0-1 09.06.99 Greece - Latvia 1-2 Norway 7 5 1 1 14- 8 16 ------------------------------------- Slovenia 6 3 2 1 8- 6 11 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Latvia 7 3 2 2 7- 5 11 Greece 7 2 3 2 8- 7 9 Georgia 7 1 1 5 4-12 4 Albania 6 0 3 3 3- 6 3 Match report ------------ Another important away win for Norway in difficult circumstances. Iversen scored another early goal with a cracking freekick after Mykland chipped the ball into his path (known as Start-chip). However, few minutes later, Albania equalized, when an indirect freekick hit the crossbar and then Olsen in goal and into the net. The rest of the half was fairly even, and in the second half Norway didn't play particularly well either, and everybody had started settling for a draw when Flo raised above the Albanian defense to head in a brilliant corner from Bergdølmo. This was Norway's 4th win in as many away games, and the road to Euro2000 is beginning to look rosy. The big threat as I could tell is Slovenia, which has 3 home games and the all-important away game in Oslo left. A victory in all those, and the ex-Yuogoslavs will go through.