All White Francis de Vries. Photo: Adam Nurkiewicz / www.photosport.nz
All Whites v Norway
Kick-off: 5am, Wednesday
Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo
Live blog updates on RNZ
The All Whites always knew they could be facing understrength European teams during the October international window and Wednesday's game against Norway will be just that.
The world no.31 side will be without seven of some of their most experienced international players for the clash in Oslo.
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland is one of four players who have left the national team to return to their club ahead of the All Whites game.
Atletico Madrid's Alexander Sørloth and Borussia Dortmund's Julian Ryerson have also been given leave by the Norwegian FA to join their captain back with their club teams due to a tight turnaround in fixtures.
Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard, who has 69 caps for Norway, has not been available throughout this two-game window due to an injury picked up playing in the Premier League as has 33-cap Leo Østigård who plays in Italy.
The All Whites will use their second game in the window to continue their build up to next year's FIFA World Cup. The world cup draw is in December and the All Whites have been playing nations from different confederations this year as they prepare for the highly-ranked teams that will be in their group.
Form
The All Whites are coming off a 1-0 loss to Poland on Friday, their fourth loss in a row.
Norway have been dominant during their Football World Cup qualifiers this year, and are on a nine game winning streak that stems back to the Nations League in November last year. In their last game against world no.76 Israel on Sunday, it was a 5-0 victory. The game before that was 11-0 over world no.156 Moldova.
While Norway have not struggled for goals, the All Whites have not scored more than once against opposition from outside of Oceania this year.
The All Whites and Norway have only played once before in a four-team tournament in 1997, with Norway winning 3-0.
Erling Haaland celebrates a goal for Norway against Israel. Photo: AFP
What they are saying
All Whites coach Darren Bazeley said they "predicted" Norway would change their squad for this game: "They've obviously sent a few people back to their clubs but their full squad is full of players playing 90 minutes every week in top environments so whilst Erling Haaland is a very good player, one of the best in the world, they've got other good players coming in so I don't know if it's disappointing to not play against him but it definitely makes it slightly easier".
On any potential All Whites changes from the Poland game: "We haven't got the ability to make mass changes but there will definitely be some tweaks".
All Whites captain and striker Chris Wood outlined where he thought the team needed to improve: "They always say the hardest thing is to score goals and when you're playing up against top 30 in the world it's always going to be tough so we need to continue to get better, continue to strive to improve in that final third and it's never going to be a finished article.
"We want to get better and better because we'll probably come up against a top 10 side in the World Cup so it's about knowing we can create stuff when we get to there not just against top 50, top 30".
Wood will become joint most capped All White, with 88 caps, when he takes the field against Norway: "It's a great occasion to say to I've been able to join Ivan [Vicelich] on that number and all going well it will happen and so I can't wait for that but also I can't wait to put in a good performance to hopefully continue to build towards the world cup".
Squads
All Whites captain Chris Wood. Photo: Andrew Cornaga / www.photosport.nz
All Whites: Max Crocombe, Alex Paulsen, Nik Tzanev, Tyler Bindon, Michael Boxall, Francis de Vries, Lukas Kelly-Heald, Tim Payne, Tommy Smith, George Stanger, Finn Surman, Joe Bell, Andre de Jong, Matt Garbett, Callum McCowatt, Ben Old, Owen Parker-Price, Sarpreet Singh, Marko Stamenić, Ryan Thomas, Bill Tuiloma, Ben Waine, Chris Wood.
Norway: Ørjan Nyland, Mathias Dyngeland, Egil Selvik, David Møller Wolfe, Torbjørn Heggem, Marcus Holmgren Pedersen, Andreas Hanche-Olsen, Tobias Guddal, Eivind Helland, Sebastian Sebulonsen, Morten Thorsby, Kristoffer Ajer, Patrick Berg, Sander Berge, Thelo Aasgaard, Antonio Nusa, Oscar Bobb, Kristian Arnstad, Sverre Nypan, Aune Heggebø, Aron Dønnum, Andreas Schjelderup, Jørgen Strand Larsen.
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