Norway head coach Stale Solbakken defended his decision to play a second string team in the 4-1 loss to France, declaring it a “no-brainer”.The 58-year-old made 10 changes to the team that beat Senegal 3-2 and did not bring either captain Martin Odegaard or Erling Haaland off the bench.Norway had already qualified for the knockout stage but a win in the final group-stage game in Boston would have secured top spot and seen them play Sweden rather than Ivory Coast.Several Norway players struggled with muscle cramps in the previous game and Solbakken decided to prioritise their round of 32 tie rather than attempt to secure top spot.“This is simple. We did a summary after Senegal and there were five or six who were very affected. After 80 minutes of play, the entire defence line and one or two midfielders were very affected,” he said.“We know that from this match to Senegal, Norway has the shortest window before another match. It could have been that we were able to play a decent match today but we want to win. Bear in mind we might not have won, what about the next game then?“It was a no-brainer. Both on my part and the physio and medical team — and from some players themselves. They all said it would be difficult for them and to be able to train. The (urine) samples were taken by the medical team and they were fed back to me. It was not a decision that took a long time to arrive at.”Many fans had arrived in Boston anticipating Haaland facing up against Kylian Mbappe with a large Norwegian following paying thousands to be in attendance, but Solbakken refused to let that cloud his judgment.“The support has been very good and they want to see Erling and Martin so that is the only reason you can feel something about the way we lined up today, but hopefully because of that we can give them some good summer nights in the weeks ahead,” he said.“I feel this consideration but we have given them a couple of victories and the opportunity to watch more games. That is what we are here to do. We don’t need to be the naive country who just play for fun. We are here to proceed as long as we can and I have to make the decisions to do that.“I wouldn’t want to sit on the plane back knowing we didn’t do our best to go as far as possible. It was an easy decision. Not even up for discussion.”Ousmane Dembele scored a hat-trick as France won to top the group (Franck Fife / AFP via Getty Images)France assistant Guy Stephan said sealing first spot was important to them because of the reduced travelling time of a 45-minute flight to New York compared to around four hours to Dallas, which Norway will now do.Norway only have three days to recover before Tuesday’s round of 32 match, which some believe could hand Ivory Coast, who beat Curacao on Thursday to qualify, an advantage.“Not now because we did what we did today,” he said.“You have to take that into consideration the shortest space between games, the train trips and changing hotels with one rest day less. It was part of why we did what we did.”Solbakken did confirm that there were scenarios in which Haaland and Odegaard would have been used as from the bench.“It would have had to be after the last hydration break,” he said. “If there was a situation where we might have reached our goal.”