The Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard left the pitch in tears after being injured in Norway’s 2-1 win over Austria on Monday night. The 25-year-old appeared to injure his ankle in the second half of the Nations League match and had to be helped from the pitch as he was substituted in the 67th minute.
Ødegaard must now be a doubt for the north London derby at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday afternoon, when Arsenal will already be without suspended midfielder Declan Rice.
“Martin’s injury looked bad in the dressing room,” the Norway coach, Ståle Solbakken, told Norwegian TV2. “I saw he was sitting with the physiotherapists around him but he had no chance to continue and we know it was an ankle sprain.”
The team doctor, Ola Sand, said: “Yes, it’s a sprain, and as those of us who had played football know, with luck it can turn out OK if the ligaments aren’t torn. We will see, maybe we use ultrasound to look at it. If we are unsure, there will be an MRI tomorrow.”
When Ødegaard left the pitch, Norway were level at 1-1 in the Group B3 clash with Ralf Rangnick’s Austria in Oslo, but Manchester City’s Erling Haaland came up with a winner for the hosts with 10 minutes left. The goal puts him just two behind Jörgen Juve’s 33-goal record for Norway.
Norway are now level on points at the top of their group with Slovenia, who eased to a 3-0 home win over Kazakhstan, thanks to a hat-trick by the RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko.
In Lyon, Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne was seething after France overcame a slow start to beat neighbours Belgium 2-0 as Randal Kolo Muani’s close-range strike and Ousmane Dembélé’s left-foot drive handed the French their first points of the Nations League campaign. It was a positive response by Didier Deschamps’ side, who changed eight of the starting team, including Kylian Mbappé, after being beaten 3-1 by Italy in Paris last Friday in their opening Group A2 fixture.
But De Bruyne, visibly frustrated during the game, launched an angry tirade against his teammates afterwards, telling Belgian VTM television that too many things had gone wrong. “I can’t say here what went wrong. I already did that to the team at half-time,” he said. “I cannot repeat that in the media, but it has to be better in every way. If the standard we want to reach is the best, but we’re no longer good enough to get to that level, then you have to give everything. If you don’t even do that, it’s over.
“We are too many at the back. If you stay with six at the back, there is no connection. It is what it is. It is not about transition, but about people who do not perform their tasks.”
Kolo Muani gave France a 29th-minute lead after the Belgium goalkeeper Koen Casteels scooped a one-handed save from Dembélé’s scuffed shot straight into the path of the Paris Saint-Germain striker. Dembélé always looked dangerous and got his reward in the 57th minute as he skipped sideways along the edge of the Belgium box before finding space to fire a superb shot past Casteels.
Mbappé was brought on in the 67th along with Bradley Barcola, whose move to PSG from Lyon last season has not been forgotten and who was jeered by the locals. Mbappé looked bright as he tried to add his name to the scoresheet, missing narrowly from a tight angle 10 minutes from time and having an effort saved by Casteels in the 86th minute.
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Italy won the other Group A2 fixture 2-1 against Israel in Budapest to open up a three-point lead in the standings. Davide Frattesi and the former Everton striker Moise Kean secured a 2-1 win for Luciano Spalletti’s side. Frattesi gave the Azzurri the lead before the break when he bundled home with his chest and Kean made it 2-0 from a rebound just after the hour mark.
Israel pulled a goal back in the 90th minute through Mohammad Abu Fani, who found the net from the edge of the box after the hosts, staging the game in Budapest for security reasons, won a free-kick.
A hat-trick from the Benfica winger Kerem Akturkoglu saw Turkey move level on top of Group B4 with Wales with a 3-1 home win over Iceland. Wales continued their strong start to life under new manager Craig Bellamy with a 2-1 win in Montenegro.
Romania made it a perfect start in Group C2 with their second win from two games, beating Lithuania 3-1 at home. In the same pool, Kosovo went to Cyprus and thrashed their hosts 4-0.