Norway women's national football team
The Norwegian women's national football team represents the Kingdom of Norway in international women's football. It is a selection of the Norwegian Football Association.
The Norwegian women's national football team is one of the most successful women's national football teams in the world. It is the first team to become European and World Champions, as well as Olympic champions. It has reached at least the quarter-finals of six out of eight World Cups and became World Champions in 1995. In Europe, it has been able to reach at least the semi-finals in every European Football Championship from 1987 onwards except 1997 and 2017, European champions in 1987 and 1993, and runners-up four times.
After the Olympic gold medal in 2000, however, the team could not win any more titles. They missed out on the 2004 Athens Games, and at the 2008 Beijing Olympics they were eliminated in the quarter-finals. They lost all their group matches at the 2009 Algarve Cup, slipping to ninth in the FIFA World Ranking at the end of March 2009. In June, Norway even dropped to 10th place. This was their worst ranking to date. At the European Championship in Finland, the team only finished 3rd in the group stage behind Germany and France, so they went into the quarter-final match against Sweden as underdogs. Here, however, the team was able to improve and surprisingly won 3:1. The semi-final against Germany was then lost 1:3 despite a good performance, especially in the 1st half. Norway then climbed back up to 7th in the FIFA world rankings.
Norway also failed to impress at the 2011 World Cup. Although they beat world number one USA 3-1 in an unofficial test match before the World Cup, they only managed a 1-0 victory over World Cup newcomers Equatorial Guinea at the World Cup. Their elimination in the preliminary round also meant that they missed out on participation in the 2012 Olympic Games.
The poor performance at the World Cup and the defeat in the first European Championship qualifying match against Iceland, led to Norway's worst ever position in the FIFA World Ranking, 12th on 23 September 2011. In March 2012, the team fell another place in the rankings after no improvement in performance at the 2012 Algarve Cup either, finishing only 7th. For the 2013 European Championship, Norway only managed to qualify directly on the last matchday of the qualifiers. Despite ultimately successful qualification, coach Eli Landsem was dismissed and Even Pellerud, the coach under whom Norway became world champions in 1995, was hired again. Under Pellerud, however, the team was initially unable to show any improvement in performance. Four preparation games for the European Championship were lost, among other things for the first time against Switzerland. In the preliminary round of the European Championship, however, the defending champions Germany were defeated in a European Championship match for the first time in 20 years and the team reached the final against Germany. There the Norwegians lost 0:1, whereby they could not convert two penalty kicks. However, reaching the European Championship final allowed the team to rise to 10th in the FIFA world rankings in August and to 8th in December thanks to victories in subsequent World Cup qualifiers, but they subsequently fell back to 12th in December 2014.
At the 2017 European Championship finals, the Norwegians were eliminated in the preliminary round, failing to score or win a point for the first time. They then dropped to 14th in the FIFA World Ranking, their lowest ranking to date.
History
Norway played their first international match in the fifth edition of the Nordic women's football championship, but lost all three games against their Scandinavian neighbours, who had been hosting internationals since 1973 and 1974 respectively. They also failed to win in 1979. It was not until the unofficial European Championship in 1979 that the first victory was achieved against Northern Ireland. However, as the second match against Italy was lost, the Norwegians were eliminated after the preliminary round. In the following two Nordic championships they managed three draws in six matches. In 1981 BUL Oslo participated in the Women's World Invitation Tournament in the Republic of China (Taiwan) and finished fourth. Some of the matches, some of which were against other club teams, are counted as official Norway internationals by FIFA, but are not counted by the NFF. Norway failed to qualify for the first European Football Championship, but managed to win the title at the second staging in 1987. In 1988, Norway won the Women's FIFA Invitational Tournament in China, establishing themselves among the top teams in women's football.
Tournament Record
World Cup
→ Main article: Norway women's national football team/World Cups
Norway are one of three European teams to have participated in all World Cup tournaments. In 1995 they became the first European team to win the World Cup in neighbouring Sweden after losing to the USA in the final four years earlier. They reached the semi-finals twice more after that. In 2011, Norway were eliminated in the preliminary round of a World Cup for the first time after losing to Brazil and Australia. Only a win against World Cup newcomers Equatorial Guinea was achieved, but they failed to score more than one goal. The early exit saw Norway drop back to 10th in the FIFA world rankings.
| Year | Result | Trainer | Most games | Most goals |
| 1991 | Second place | Even Pellerud | 09 players with 6 games | Linda Medalen (6) |
| 1995 | World Champion | Even Pellerud | 09 players with 6 games | Ann Kristin Aarønes (6), top scorer |
| 1999 | Fourth place | Per-Mathias Høgmo | 07 players with 6 games | Ann Kristin Aarønes (4) |
| 2003 | Quarterfinals | Åge Steen | 11 players with 6 games | Dagny Mellgren (3) |
| 2007 | Fourth place | Bjarne Berntsen | 07 players with 6 games | Ragnhild Gulbrandsen (6) |
| 2011 | Preliminary round | Eli Landsem | 08 players with 3 games | Emilie Bosshard Haavi and Elise Thorsnes (1 each) |
| 2015 | Round of 16 | Even Pellerud | 08 players with 4 games | Ada Hegerberg (3) |
| 2019 | Quarterfinals | Martin Sjögren | 11 players with 5 games | Isabell Herlovsen (2) |
| All | Bente Nordby and Hege Riise (22 each) | Ann Kristin Aarønes (10) |
European Championship
→ Main article: Norway women's national football team/European Championships
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Olympics
→ Main article: Norway women's national football team/Olympic Games
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Nordic Championship
- 1978: Fourth
- 1979: Fourth
- 1980: Third
- 1981: Fourth
- 1982: Second
Algarve Cup
The national team took part in all editions of the Algarve Cup, in which almost all of the best women's national teams took part every year until 2015. They won the first edition and four others, making them the second most successful team in the tournament after the USA. However, a 10th-place finish in 2014 after four losses, with Norway the only team not to win a match, was their worst finish until 2017. In 2017, it was only enough to reach the 11th-place match, and in 2019, after 21 years without a title, they achieved their fifth success. In 2020, the 100th game was the third place.
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Norway in the match against Germany at the EM 2009
