Kick-off: 2000, 07/07/2022
Stadium: St Mary’s Stadium
TV: BBC
Norway are hot favourites to begin their quest for a third UEFA Women’s Championship triumph by brushing aside Northern Ireland in Southampton.
These teams were in the same qualifying group for this competition and the Scandinavians romped to 6-0 victories in both of their encounters.
We’re taking 3.6 for Martin Sjogren’s side to win 4-0, 5-0 or 6-0 this time as our first Norway Women vs Northern Ireland Women prediction.
Norway Women Odds
Norway have won six of their seven previous meetings with Northern Ireland, including the last five games since a sole defeat in 2011.
They will be appearing at their 12th European Championship, joint-top with Italy, and lifted the trophy in 1987 and 1993, as well as winning the World Cup in 1995.
The Grasshoppers have a point to prove this summer, though, having failed to reach the last four for only the second time when suffering a trio of group-stage defeats five years ago.
Sjogren will have been concerned by losses to Portugal and Italy at the Algarve Cup in February, although his side did beat the first-named team in a third-place play-off.
Since then, Norway have won a couple of World Cup qualifiers and beaten New Zealand and Denmark in warm-up matches for this competition.
Winger Caroline Graham Hansen is an exciting player to watch and Barcelona teammate Ingrid Syrstad Engen features in a strong midfield alongside Guro Reiten, of Chelsea.
Getting Ada Hegerberg back is another huge boost, with the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner pivotal to Lyon’s Champions League final win over Barca.
She returned to action in October after more than 18 months out injured and had previously spent several years away from international duty, being unhappy with the way women’s football was being run in the country.
The Scandinavians got off to fast starts in both qualifying matches with Ireland, going ahead after four minutes in Belfast and three minutes in Stavanger.
So, 2.7 for them to be leading after 15 minutes again here stands out from the Norway Women vs Northern Ireland Women odds.
Northern Ireland Women Odds
Manager Kenny Shiels has described his side as “massive underdogs” as he prepares Northern Ireland for their first major women’s tournament.
Having qualified by defeating Ukraine in the play-offs, they are comfortably the lowest-ranked team in the competition, as the only side placed outside the top 30.
The Green and White Army have gone five games without a win following a 5-0 drubbing by England in April’s World Cup qualifier and last week’s 4-1 friendly loss to Belgium.
Shiels said: “It hasn’t been a bad period for us. We’ve just been beaten by teams that were miles better than us in terms of where they’re at.
“I think there’s a lot of freedom with our girls under how we’ve worked with them to make sure they’re not worried about losing a football match.
“We try to de-stress them and we talk about how unimportant football is in terms of people’s lives.
“We try to let them know and understand that they should feel proud to represent their country at this level.”
Ireland can be relied upon to give 100 per cent but just look in too deep at this level.
Tiredness could come into play during the second half, so 2.5 for the favourites to win and over 2.5 goals after the interval is added to our Norway Women vs Northern Ireland Women betting tips.
Additional stats
Last result:
Denmark 1-2 NORWAY – Guro Reiten (2)
Belgium 4-1 NORTHERN IRELAND – Wade
Head-to-head: Norway 6-0 N Ireland, N Ireland 0-6 Norway, N Ireland 0-3 Norway, Norway 4-1 N Ireland
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