While they've been on a warm-weather training camp planning meticulously for this month's round of games, they'll also have been hoping that Erling Haaland's triple-winning celebrations and a potential postseason slump from Martin Odegaard might just be enough to knock Norway out of Oslo on Saturday night.
It is impossible to ignore the two outstanding prodigious talents in the Norway team while evaluating the task ahead for Steve Clarke's men. Both have achieved teen idol status. Both have grown into elite athletes who have excelled in the Premier League title chase this year.
Of course, Haaland won with his record-breaking 36-goal haul. However, Odegaard led Arsenal to a tremendously successful season of their own. He will continue to don the armband for his nation.
On the international stage, where he has 21 goals in 23 games, Haaland has the opportunity to extend his incredible scoring streak, if the hangover has passed. If Norway want to advance to the championship next summer, they could likely use a few of his signature strikes, making a victory all but necessary. When their striker was injured, they only earned one point from their opening two games.
These two stars from Norway are clearly important to the team, but their journeys to this point have been very different.
Lars Lagerback, a former manager for Norway, is familiar with their captivating tales.
He was the one who gave Haaland his international debut, and afterwards, everyone marveled.
He's terrific," says Lagerback, a former manager of Sweden and the guy who guided Iceland to the Euros quarterfinals and that illustrious victory over England.
He was 19 when I first brought him in. "I have had the fortune to have several outstanding players throughout the years, but I never experienced. You can compare him to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrik Larsson, or anyone else you want, but at this age, none of them could even come close to matching him.
He is, in my opinion, unique in every way.
Haaland received the call to join his nation's senior levels while he was with Red Bull Salzburg.
When he moved to Austria, he continued to establish himself after making a splash at Molde in his native country.
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