FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) 鈥� Erling Haaland is among 10 regular starters absent from Norway鈥檚 starting lineup for the team’s match against France on Friday.
Coach St氓le Solbakken appears to be resting Haaland and others with Norway already qualified for the . Norway would need to beat France to win Group I because the team trails on goal difference.
with and for the second-most goals in the tournament with four apiece. That is one behind Argentina鈥檚 Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot.
Fredrik Aursnes is the only player who opened against Senegal on Monday who is listed among the starting 11. Among the wholesale changes, Egil Selvik is in goal in place of Orjan Nyland.
Mbapp茅 and the rest of France’s regular lineup is set to start. But France will be without coach Didier Deschamps, . That has left assistant coach Guy St茅phan to coach Friday’s game in his place.
The 57-year-old Deschamps is currently in France with family. He previously announced he is stepping down as France coach after the tournament, 14 years after taking the job. Deschamps won the World Cup as a player in 1998 and then again as coach in 2018. His France team lost in the final four years ago.
St茅phan said Thursday that his thoughts continue to be with Deschamps and his family.
鈥淗e is very affected,鈥� St茅phan said. 鈥淚 have a lot of exchanges with him, even just a few minutes ago. I will strive to make the situation as normal as possible and to prove worthy of the trust he places in me.鈥�
The winner of Group I will play in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Tuesday against a to-be-determined third-place finisher. The second-place team in the group faces the Ivory Coast the same day in Arlington, Texas.
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