Norway will be aiming to begin 2022 with back-to-back victories when they welcome Armenia to the Ullevaal Stadion on Tuesday for an international friendly.
The visitors can also claim consecutive wins after they edged out Montenegro in their most recent international fixture.
Match preview
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Norway will not be present in Qatar for the World Cup after they agonisingly missed out on a playoff place in a competitive qualifying group.
Stale Solbakken's charges ended their qualifying campaign with a goalless draw against Latvia and a 2-0 away defeat to the Netherlands, which resulted in them falling three points short of Turkey, who finished in second place.
Although they will not appear at the World Cup, Norway will be looking to have a strong campaign in the upcoming UEFA Nations League, which begins in June.
Norway will feature in a tough group in League B where they will face Serbia, Sweden and Slovenia, and they will be hoping to carry momentum into those set of games as they look to claim consecutive wins after beating Slovakia in an international friendly on Friday.
The contest against Slovakia looked set to end in a goalless draw before Erling Braut Haaland and Martin Odegaard scored in the 77th and 80th minute respectively to get Norway off to a winning start in 2022.
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Armenia will also be fully focused on the UEFA Nations League after they fell short in World Cup qualifying, with Germany, North Macedonia and Romania all finishing ahead of Tuesday's visitors in their qualifying group.
Like their hosts, Armenia will also feature in League B in the UEFA Nations League after they earned promotion in the 2020-21 edition of the competition.
With games against Scotland, Ireland and Ukraine coming up in their League B group, Armenia will be aiming to build some confidence ahead of those tough fixtures.
They will certainly be in high spirits after they earned a 1-0 win against Montenegro in their most recent international friendly, which took place on Thursday.
Vahan Bichakhchyan grabbed the all-important goal in the 19th minute and though Styopa Mkrtchyan received his second yellow card with seven minutes remaining, Joaquin Caparros's side held firm to begin 2022 with a win.
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Team News
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Ahead of the UEFA Nations League, Solbakken will be keen to take a look at a number of his playing squad, which could result in a number of changes to Tuesday's lineup.
Goalkeeper Andre Hansen may be given some playing time, while Julian Ryerson and Kristoffer Ajer are expected to come into the Norwegian backline.
Solbakken could also give Jens Hauge, Joshua King and Veton Berisha the chance to operate in a front three for the hosts on Tuesday.
As for the visitors, Davit Terteryan is set to come into the starting lineup at right-back, while Andre Calisir could partner Varazdat Haroyan in the centre of defence.
Caparros could also bring Gevorg Ghazaryan into the starting XI with the 33-year-old expected to line up on the left flank.
Bichakhchyan scored his second international goal in the win over Montenegro, and he will have the chance to score in back-to-back games for his country when he starts against Norway.
Norway possible starting lineup:
Hansen; Ryerson, Ajer, Hanche-Olsen, Bjorkan; Thorstvedt, Aursenes, Thorsby; Hauge, King, Berisha
Armenia possible starting lineup:
Yurchenko; Terteryan, Calisir, Haroyan, Hovhannisyan; Barseghyan, Udo, Spertsyan, Ghazaryan; Bichakhchyan, Miranyan
We say: Norway 2-1 Armenia
Although Norway are expected to make a number of changes, the players that come into the side will be eager to make an impression, and we think that the hosts will utilise home advantage on Tuesday to edge out Armenia in Oslo.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Norway win with a probability of 52.24%. A draw had a probability of 26.4% and a win for Armenia had a probability of 21.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Norway win was 1-0 with a probability of 14.45%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.72%) and 2-1 (9.06%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.21%), while for an Armenia win it was 0-1 (8.23%). The actual scoreline of 9-0 was predicted with a 0% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Norway would win this match.
