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Norway boss Stale Solbakken said it was a no-brainer to rest Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard against France.
Ousmane Dembele scored a hat-trick as a heavily-rotated Norway were trounced 4-1 in this, their final World Cup group stage match.
Solbakken’s men had already qualified for the round of 32, though, and will face the Ivory Coast after finishing second in Group I.
Haaland and Odegaard, Norway’s top goalscorer and captain, respectively, were among ten men dropped between Norway’s penultimate group stage match against Senegal and this one, and Solbakken said it did not take much consideration for him to rest his two stars, with sights already trained on Les Elephants.
“It was a no-brainer both on my part, the physio coach, the health and medical, and for some players themselves,” he explained.
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“They all said it would be difficult for many of them (to play so soon after facing Senegal), and if some of the players who had played Senegal wouldn’t have been able to play and practice going forward, then the only consideration is taking fans in Norway and here into consideration.
“They would have wanted to see Erling and Martin but we are here to proceed as long as we can.
“This decision was not one that took a lot of time for us to think over. The tests, the samples taken, it was the medicals. They decided to take them and they fed back to me.”
Norway had just three rest days between their 3-2 victory over Senegal, in which Haaland scored a brace, and Friday’s meeting with France.
