EXCLUSIVE | John Arne Riise: ‘Kylian Mbappe has more to play with but I would rather have Erling Haaland in my team’ | OneFootball

Shortly before the World Cup began, Get French Football News sat down with former Liverpool star and Norway international John Arne Riise to talk about the World Cup group match between France and Norway, which takes place later today.

We have the World Cup coming up and France and Norway are in the same group. It’s the third match, so hopefully both teams will already be comfortably qualified [Ed: both nations have qualified but first place is still to be decided] but it’s probably the headline match of the group. What is your and the general Norwegian view of the French team?

Well myself and most people in Norway think that France are one of the favourites to go all the way to win the World Cup. I think it’s the match-up that we would love to have because obviously before the draw was made, I’d rather have a tough group to meet the best players early in the tournament. And like you said, I think we all are happy that France is the third game because then we know a little bit more what is at stake when it comes to the game. But we look at France as powerful, strong, technically and tactically very good. And yeah, one of the favourites to win not just the group, but also the World Cup.

And what should France expect from the Norway team?

Well, obviously we have a couple of players whom they know a lot about, whom I think they’re going to be scared of and will want to have a little bit of a better look at, but I think the French people would generally feel that Norway is a team they should beat in the group. But I think we can surprise them – we are a strong team, we are compact, we are powerful, we work hard for each other.

But I do think the individual quality of France is going to be too strong for Norway when it comes to the game. But if we’re going to beat France we need to be at our 100% best and we need to be compact and we need to make the most of the chances we will get in the game to score. But I’m really looking forward to the game because I think France is such an unbelievable force of a team. You know they have so much power and pace and everything in the team. So I’m looking forward to the game.

We know obviously about the likes of Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard, for example. But do Norway have any secret weapons in their team that maybe France won’t know so much about but could be a handful for them?

I think they’ll know about him but I think Antonio Nusa, the left winger. He can play both sides but I think he’s one that people will have a look at in the World Cup because he’s so – you could say un-Norwegian – because he likes to take players on, he likes to dribble, he is tricky. He’s more the type of player who likes to really get the ball at his feet and just do amazing things one against one and score some great goals. I think he would be someone France will have a good look at apart from Haaland, Ødegaard and Alexander Sørloth and all those kind of players. And also Sander Berge who plays for Fulham, the holding midfielder. I think this World Cup will be a great chance for him to show how good he really is because he’s been amazing at Fulham and great for Norway. So I think he will be showing some great tactical and positional play when he holds the midfield of Norway.

I think in the run-up to the game there’s obviously going to be so much focus on Kylian Mbappe against Haaland. So what do you think – Mbappe or Haaland? I’d be tempted to say Mbappe is a better player but maybe I’d rather have Haaland in my team?

[Laughs] Yeah, maybe I agree with you. I think Mbappe has more to play with in his style of football, in his football play, you know, he obviously is lightning quick, he has great technique, he can take on people one against one and he can score goals. But when it comes to in a team, I think Haaland is just an amazing goalscorer. He takes great positions in the box, he’s frighteningly strong and he’s good in the air. So I kind of agree that I would rather have Haaland in my team because of everything he can create in the box and how dangerous he is and how strong he is. But as a footballer I think Mbappe maybe has more strings to play with than Haaland.

John Arne Riise was speaking exclusively to Get French Football News courtesy of talkSPORT Bet Online Spots

GFFN | Jeremy Smith