On a day of pro-Palestine demonstrations, high security and skirmishes in Oslo, Norway run out convincing victors
A hot potato of an occasion passed with minor blemishes off the pitch. Erling Haaland stole the attention with a hat-trick on it, rendering his early double penalty miss a distant memory, and the upshot was that Norway could look with clear heads toward a near-certain first World Cup appearance in 27 years. A win over Estonia next month will confirm their presence; Egil Olsen, their manager at France 1998, looked on as Israel offered scant opposition to Europe’s most ruthless attacking force.
Israel’s very presence in Oslo had been highly contested, the buildup framed by the Norwegian Football Federation’s public stance that they should be banned from international football due to the war in Gaza. There will be relief that confrontations were kept to a minimum beyond a brief spate of trouble outside the Ullevaal Stadion during half-time.
Phase one of the day’s intensive security operation had concluded smoothly. At 2pm a crowd of pro-Palestine protesters, cohered by the Palestine Committee in Norway, had gathered at Spikersuppa in the centre of Oslo in preparation for their march to Ullevaal. A matter of yards away, polite applause had rippled intermittently as the swearing-in of Norway’s parliament was relayed on a big screen. The marchers, whose number swelled to around 1,500 during the 2.6 mile route, were more vigorously propelled by flares and beating drums. Red cards were distributed among attendees.
