Norway manager Stale Solbakken joked that if Jack Grealish could train for England then he has no cause to worry about Erling Haaland’s treble celebrations ahead of Saturday’s clash with Scotland. Solbakken understood the need for Haaland to revel in his success with Manchester City after last weekend’s Champions League final. Solbakken has taken it easy with Haaland this week, more concerned with ensuring the striker recharges, and believes a homecoming welcome will lift his star man during the Euro 2024 qualifier in Oslo. City celebrated in Ibiza after their Istanbul success against Inter before continuing the party on a bus parade in Manchester on Monday with Grealish throwing himself wholeheartedly into the fun. When asked what the Norwegian people made of the scenes ahead of a big international, Solbakken said: “I think everyone understands that and I also think it’s a good idea to do that. “Because, no matter how good you are, if you say (Pep) Guardiola is the best manager in the world and he has managed to do this treble once in Spain, once time in England, even when he had the best players representing the biggest clubs with the biggest budgets, you could think this would happen more often. But it doesn’t because it’s so, so difficult. “And I don’t think you can postpone a celebration like that. You can’t say ‘let’s meet up in the summer when these national games are over and we party’. It’s not the same because the excitement is a little bit out of your body and you have to do it then. “When he came here, he didn’t look like he had gone the Grealish way. If Grealish managed to train for England the first time, he should also manage to do it for us.” Only one of Haaland’s 53 goals this season has come on the international stage but the 22-year-old has not played for his country since September and Solbakken believes an excited home crowd will help him overcome his heavy schedule. “The biggest gift in that is the love the crowd will give him because it’s a long time since he has played in Norway and he didn’t participate in the two internationals earlier this year,” the former Wolves and Copenhagen manager said. “Obviously the Norwegian people have seen him on telly for a long time without seeing him live. I think he has had one game here in a year. “So that will probably pump him up and give him the five to 10 per cent he probably lacks due to the programme he has been through and all the feelings and emotions he has been through as well.” Haaland was missed in March as Norway took one point from their opening two Group A games against Spain and Georgia, while Scotland sealed maximum return. On the game, Solbakken said: “It’s more crucial for us than Scotland of course but no matter what, before the group started, this would always have been a key game. “But it’s more that Scotland have had a really great start. I think we played two really good games but what messed it up a little bit, even though we only got one point, is that Scotland beat Spain. “That means it looks much better for us if we can beat you and everyone is beating each other. If we win, also Spain are in trouble, because it’s two teams who can catch them.” Read More City soak it in and Nuggets strike gold – Tuesday’s sporting social Cadan Murley suspends loyalty to Man Utd to analyse Erling Haaland’s finishing Jack Grealish revels as Manchester City parade treble Manchester City’s trophy parade in pictures The sporting weekend in pictures Man City match-winner Rodri named Champions League player of the year

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Success breeds success and England legend Rachel Yankey believes that the momentum from the Lionesses’ Euros crown can carry them at the World Cup despite a host of big-name absentees. Skipper Leah Williamson will miss the showpiece Down Under through injury, as will Beth Mead and Fran Kirby. It is the biggest concern for Sarina Wiegman’s squad as they look to add the global success to the European title they memorably claimed on home soil. But Yankey, who won 129 caps in a 16-year international career, has backed the team to use their experience of going all the way in 2022 to make up for the losses of established leaders. “Obviously they are missing players, which is disappointing for those individuals, but you want them to come back the fittest and strongest so you don’t want to rush them back for a massive tournament,” said Yankey, who has been assigned as a ‘Confidence Coach’, a move by Gatorade which comes in response to new data revealing that over four in ten (41%) parents believe that a lack of confidence and self-esteem are barriers which prevent teens from taking up sport. “What it is, is an opportunity for other players to really be involved in a key tournament, whether that is to gain experience or be a big part of it. “I think the squad would have learned so much from the Euros, there are different ranges of age within the squad, there are a lot of experienced players, so I think that they will be fine. “They can draw on their experiences, there is a lot of resilience within the players in that squad and I think there is good leadership and good youth. Fingers crossed they can go far. “For the players that weren’t there last year, they can look around that changing room and see so many different faces that were involved and played big parts in moments within the squad. Anybody that has been there and done it, and obviously the manager has done it twice, I think you can believe and have trust, you can settle people’s nerves by looking around and sharing experiences. “I don’t think there is just one leader in that England team. Collectively, that is their strong point. I think it will come down to how well they gel off the pitch and I’m sure they are going to do a fantastic job because they can look back on their previous experiences.” One noticeable aspect of the England squad named by Wiegman was the inclusion of just two Black players, Jess Carter and Lauren James. That is a continuation of a theme that was evident at the Euros, when Carter and Nikita Parris were the only Black players to get onto the pitch for England. The FA are aware of the issue, with Wiegman stressing that work is being done to change the make-up of the squad, while admitting it will not happen overnight. For Yankey, at one point England’s most capped footballer of either gender, and a trailblazer for Black women’s footballers, part of that trend may be due to the increased organisation of football. “There’s many different barriers that are leading to why young girls from all different backgrounds are not taking up the sport or not staying in the sport, or not getting the same opportunities to play the sport,” added Yankey, who delivered a moving Team Talk at the Gatorade’s 5v5 all-female tournament in Eindhoven, an annual five-a-side competition for 14- to 16-year-olds that featured nine female teams from across the Netherlands who all fought hard to qualify for the final and represent their local communities on a global stage. “One of the things that relates straightaway, when I think back to when I played football as a kid, I used to go out of my front door and with two boys across the road, we would go to the bottom of the street and play football. You don’t see people do that anymore. We used to go to the park and play football, you don’t really see people do that anymore. “We used to play unorganised football where we would create our games and make up our own skills. Everything is very organised at the moment and everything has a cost. “In the final years of my playing and even after retiring, I think more and more people have told me how important I was to them. Things that I didn’t necessarily think about, the way I used to have my hair braided, the colour of my skin. For some people, just the fact that I was a woman playing football. “At an early age, I understood that there was a role to play when you are playing for Arsenal and playing for England, you don’t want to let people down. But I didn’t really understand how deeply it could go into my gender and obviously my race. They weren’t things I thought about, that was really helping other people. We need more people to be going out and playing football, we need more people from different backgrounds. We need to be highlighting the game and to get more players.” Read More ‘Go get them’: William visits Lionesses to wish them good luck ahead of World Cup England World Cup goalkeeper set to leave WSL side this summer Ella Toone ‘ready and prepared’ for World Cup summer with England Qatar World Cup workers suffered ‘human rights abuses’, new Amnesty report finds Fifa accused of lying about environmental impact of Qatar World Cup Why Fifa is right about stand-off with Women’s World Cup broadcasters

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