Erling Haaland scored two goals and made another as Norway beat their neighbours Sweden 3-2 in their Nations League Group B4 clash at the Ullevaal Stadium, taking his international goal tally to 20 –including four in two games against the Swedes.
The 21-year-old stooped to head home Fredrik Bjorkan’s chipped pass to open the scoring in the 10th minute and added his second from the penalty spot nine minutes into the second half after the goalkeeper Robin Olsen fouled Alexander Sørloth.
Emil Forsberg reduced the deficit shortly after the hour mark with a precise shot into the top corner but Haaland helped snuff out any hope of a comeback for the visitors as he crossed for Sørloth to score in the 77th minute.
Viktor Gyökeres scored for the Swedes in stoppage time to make it 3-2, but group leaders Norway held on to move up to 10 points.
Elsewhere in the Nations League, Serbia threw away the chance to climb to within a point of Norway, drawing 2-2 with Slovenia after going two goals up. The visitors raced into a first-half lead thanks to Andrija Zivkovic and Aleksandar Mitrovic, but a triple half-time substitution from Slovenia spurred a comeback. Adam Gnezda Cerin pulled one back before 19-year-old Benjamin Sesko became his country’s youngest ever scorer with a smartly taken equaliser.
Carlos Soler kickstarted Spain’s straightforward 2-0 win over Czech Republic. The Valencia player finished unerringly from Marco Asensio’s pull-back in the first half before Pablo Sarabia wrapped up the win with 15 minutes to go.
Portugal fell a point behind their Iberian neighbours after a shock defeat to Switzerland. Haris Seferovic headed the hosts into a first-minute lead, and Portugal were denied a leveller a quarter of an hour later when Rafael Leão’s goal was ruled out for offside. A heroic second-half goalkeeping display from Jonas Omlin, which saw him deny Bernardo Silva and Diogo Jota, helped Switzerland earn their first points of the campaign.
After Northern Ireland’s draw with Cyprus in League C Group 2, Celtic forward Georgios Giakoumakis came off the bench to open the scoring in Greece’s 2-0 win over Kosovo and keep up his country’s perfect record so far. In Group 4, North Macedonia eased past Gibraltar, Bojan Miovski scoring twice in a 4-0 win, while Georgia stayed top of the group after playing out a goalless draw with Bulgaria.
