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MARTIN ØDEGAARD or Erling Braut Haaland? Last night there was a real choice for tens of thousands of Norwegian football fans. Then Arsenal and Manchester City played their quarter-finals at the same time in the Champions League.
The Norwegian football adventure was complete. Match start 21:00 for both of the two incredibly great sporting heroes; select channel.
For those of us who believe that football is a fresh commodity, this gives no other option than to pick a favourite:
- I chose Martin even though Real Madrid – Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabéu as the match is chopped up. Both because of the drama in the last two editions of the Champions League and their position as the world’s two leading teams.
Nevertheless, it was Ødegaard and Arsenal. It hadn’t happened a year ago; in that jubilant season where both were nominated for the Ballon d’Or. And Haaland should have won.
In the sport’s respect for Lionel Messi, he had to settle for the prize of top football’s top scorer; 56 goals in 56 games for Manchester City.
FULL he doesn’t score that often now, but that was not at all the reason to prioritize Arsenal against Bayern Munich as the TV match. This is not Haaland’s level or Haaland’s form.
I have long believed that the management in Norwegian top sport has underestimated his achievements. It was a startling omission that he does not received the award as best Norwegian athlete before at the last Sports Gala; three years after he was eligible.
With the small dip in form after the injury break, there is no reason to scrap Haaland among the TV channels either. The striker job at Manchester City is so special in its job description that 30 goals in 37 games holds plenty.
Took fire: Rest
IN THE; choice of match last night was solely due to the eye-catching progress of Martin Ødegaard.
If you are in love with the game of football, it has become almost impossible to choose him.
So much of the most beautiful and surprising thing about the sport comes when Martin has the ball.
THE came yesterday also in a match where Martin Ødegaard gave his teammates every opportunity to succeed.
Because it was he who calmed the first nerves after Bayern opened offensively away from home. Then Martin responded by dropping all the way down towards the stoppers, and with natural authority took over the main responsibility for bringing Arsenal up to their usual level.
In the sequence before he beautifully beat Bukayo Saka to make it 1-0, the Norwegian was in touch with the ball four times before he had made room for the decisive pass in the fifth attempt.
It was a display of football knowledge.
Wrong to wreck him
AND Martin Ødegaard had more.
Just minutes later, it was right-back Ben White who was just as sensitively pushed through in the same hole behind the Bayern defence. Unfortunately to no avail. White was awkwardly alone with veteran goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
In this match, it became an omen for Arsenal’s usually steady defenders. Quite quickly, mess and bom turned the score to 1-2 without Martin Ødegaard, with all his wonderful pressing and extreme return runs, being able to correct the misery.
Even a technical leak close to Bayern’s dead line with a pull behind the leg and subsequent millimeter pass to Saka was nothing more than great entertainment.
ARSENAL got their equalizer to 2-2, and decent opportunities in the return match in Munich next week. It happened in a second half where Ødegaard, due to his teammates’ poor choices, was unable to influence the game offensively in the same way.
Instead, the home team stiffened on the left wing where little good happened until Leandro Trossard came on after just under an hour with an obvious Gabriel Jesus as striker.
It was still not enough to decide on an evening where Bayern overperformed in relation to their weak season.
Wild scenes in the big game
HELLER not Erling Braut Haaland was decisive in Madrid; the city where he is welcomed almost every day of the year by the local press because of the still young Norwegian’s sensational string of wonderful goals.
This time, all the beauty in the top scorer business came from other bones. Phil Foden, Joško Gvardiol(!) and Federico Valverde delivered spectacular goals. It contributed to the fact that 4-4 in chances turned into a 3-3 result that did not reflect the rest of the attacking play.
THE so be it. Haaland gets another chance at home against Real Madrid next week. Then there is no reason to look back at a match streak with fewer goals than usual. That statistic is improving quickly both in the Champions League final and the golden match in the Premier League.
So there is still only one reason to choose Erling Braut Haaland on TV.
That Martin Ødegaard is playing at the same time.