My worst game says Mats Møller Dæhli

Stuttgart,Mats Møller Dæhli,Norway.Photo : Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix

In a curious reminder of Germany’s 7-1 defeat of Brazil in the 2014 World Cup semi-final, Mats Møller Dæhli said he felt helpless as Germany crushed Norway on its way to a 6 nil victory in Monday’s World Cup qualifying match.

 

 

‘It’s the worst football game I’ve been involved in throughout my entire life, both emotionally, and in terms of the match, but I can say with my hand on my heart that I gave it everything I had,’ he said.

‘We were nowhere near fixing it, so now it’s just to go home and work out. In football there is always a new match.’

Dæhli was amazed at how wrong things went, though he was fully aware of the opponent’s quality as a football team.

‘Germany did some tactical things that we didn’t quite answer. We didn’t want to be so passive, but we were, and then Germany found its passage very easily.’

He understands that many fans in Norway are disappointed, and that there is a lot of news and talk on social media.

Sorry

‘I can say – sorry – to the Norwegian people, for both the result, and the performance, but I will never give in. You just have to plough on. In football, there is always another match, and if we win it, the whole perspective looks better again’, he said.

Dæhli was asked if he was afraid that Norway’s worst qualifying loss, 0-9 to the Netherlands in 1972, might be surpassed.

‘When you come down so clearly, and so early, it’s about trying to limit the damage. We just tried to gather ourselves together as a group and make sure it didn’t get as disastrous as it could have been’, he said.

He saw that the German’s sheer quality pushed Norway into an unsustainable position.

Better than us

‘We were out-played, and I was lying on the back wing, to take out Kimmich who was positioned wide. Then they made passes between us, and we had no effective answer. We have to look at the match, but maybe there isn’t so much to learn. Perhaps we must just realize that the Germans were insanely better than us in all areas, and accept it’.

He isn’t worried that his German teammates in St. Pauli will gloat when he returns to his club team.

‘It’s not important. I just have to train, and try to progress as a player, and not let this affect me,’ said Dæhli.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today