Norway national football team

The Norway national football team represents Norway is international. It is controlled by the Norges Fotballforbund. It has particpated in five FIFA World Cup's with their best result being a third place at the 1950 World Cup in Sweden.

Early history
The first instance of a Norway football team took place on October 20, 1908 as they were one of five teams to compete at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. In their first match against, they would get demolished 8-0. The following tournament which was the 1910 FIFA World Cup held in Austria wouldn't be much better with the team being bundled to a 5-0 defeat to in the opening round of the competition.

The following summer, Norway competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics. With the chances of not going fair being high, they shocked the Austrians 2-0 to record their first international victory in a tournament. Two more straight wins over the and  later, they had qualified through to a Olympic final against the Olympic champions in the. For Norway, that it would be where it would end, losing 6-0 to the Dutch and recording a silver medal. The following year, they competed in the first qualifier match in FIFA World Cup history as they took on. This match also would become the first to be played with a replay attached as scored the winning goal to book Norway's spot in the World Cup.

Competing in Group C with, and the Netherlands, the Norwegians would finish second in the group after a 5-0 loss to the Netherlands. But wins over Austria and Germany got Norway a spot in the knockout stage where they would go down to the Danish 4-3 in what some would later classify as the match of the tournament. The next tournament at the 1920 Summer Olympics saw Norway make to the semi finals with wins over and  before once losing to the Dutch. They would go on though to record their first Nordic Football Championship title two years later in 1924 as they finish ahead of Finland. The following year it wouldn't go well as the Nordic Championship was also qualifying for the 1926 FIFA World Cup. Only a win against Denmark would be the result.

WC appearances and a third place
The qualifying for the 1930 FIFA World Cup meant that the team was put in Group 5.1 with Sweden, and  with the top two qualifying to the final round where they would took on the winners of the other group. For Norway, this meant that they would qualify with ease after ten pass the two Baltic nations to book a spot in the final round. That final round featured Denmark and the who had qualified through Group 5.2. They would go on to qualify through to the World Cup after a initial stumping block with a 1-1 against the Soviets before wins over Denmark and Sweden secured their passage through.

At the World Cup, Norway got placed in Group D with, Czechoslovakia and debutant. After securing a 2-0 win over Paraguay in the opening game, a 2-1 loss to Czechoslovakia and a 1-0 loss to Switzerland wouldn't be enough as the team finished third in the group and was eliminated from the competition. After the tournament though, they would win their third consecutive Nordic Championship, this time by defeating Denmark.

The following World Cup qualification saw Norway having no trouble booking a spot, finishing top of their group before defeating Sweden in the Nordic playoff to book a spot at the 1934 FIFA World Cup. But with a draw that featured, and Sweden; they would end on the bottom of the table without scoring a single point with the only two goals of the tournament for Norway being from  and.

FIFA World Cup
Gold  Silver   Bronze