The Norway national football B team was a secondary national

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team under the control of the

Football Association of Norway The Norwegian Football Federation ( nb, Norges Fotballforbund, nn, Noregs Fotballforbund; NFF) is the governing body of football in Norway. It was formed in 1902 and organises the men's and women's national teams, as well as the league systems f ...

. The team was formed in 1929 and for the next decade played an annual match against Sweden B. From 1946 to 1966 the team started playing more matches, normally an annual match each against Denmark B, Finland B and Sweden B. The team went on a hiatus which has since only been broken twice, once in 1989 and for three matches in 2002.

History

Norway B's first match was a 3–1 loss against Sweden B in Stockholm on 29 September 1929, which was also the debut game for Sweden B. The two teams would continue to play each other annually until 1939. After a hiatus during the Second World War, Norway B was revived on 26 August 1945 with a 5–1 loss against Denmark B in

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

. Norway B would for the next two decades play two to four annual games, predominantly against the B-teams of Sweden and Denmark, and from 1951 Finland B. Only five times did Norway B play a non-Nordic opponent in this spree, a 0–1 home loss against Luxembourg B in 1950, a 2–2 home tie against Switzerland B in 1953, and two matches against the Netherlands B, losing 5–2 away in 1954 and 0–4 at home three years later. In between Norway B beat Romania B 1–2 away on 27 June 1956. Regular matches with Norway B ended on 17 September 1966 with a 5–4 loss against Sweden B. The team was revived for a single match against England B, losing 0–1 at

Stavanger Stadion Stavanger Stadion is a multi-use stadium in Stavanger, Norway. It was used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and hosted the home matches of Viking FK. The stadium opened on 13 August 1917, and was able to hold 17,555 people at the e ...

on 22 May 1989. Norway entered its B-team for the annual, four-nation Torneio Vale do Tejo in Portugal in January 2002. After holding Portugal B 1–1 after extra rounds, Norway lost 5–4 to the hosts in a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

. Norway finished last in the tournament after advancing losing a penalty shootout to Romania B after 2–2 at the end of extra time. The last time the Norway B team was deployed took place on 6 March 2002, in a 0–1 victory over Denmark B at Brøndby Stadion in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. These three matches were all coached by A-team coach

Nils Johan Semb Nils Johan Semb (born 24 February 1959) was the coach of the Norway national football team from 1998 to 2003, presiding over 68 matches. He led the team to its first European Football Championship in 2000. Though successful, at least in the begi ...

Statistics

Norway B played 79 games. Its greatest victory was a 6–1 home victory over Finland B at Gjøvik Stadion on 14 August 1955. Norway B's greatest defeat occurred twice, both against Sweden B, 8–0 on 16 September 1956 and 10–2 on 19 September 1964.

References

{{Football in Norway B-team European national B association football teams