With Malta playing Norway next Wednesday at Ta’ Qali National Stadium in a friendly ‘A’ international match, it will be the fifth time in the last ten months that Nordic countries will have played our full representative team.

This recent ‘love affair’ with these countries from the north had Malta first meeting Finland at home in March 2004 and five months later the Faroe Islands away, both games ending in respective narrow 2-1 and 3-2 defeats for our team.

Sweden and Iceland were next, with the Maltese being torn apart by the Swedes at Ta’ Qali and then making some amends with a heartening display, again at home, when ending all square on a goalles scoreline against Iceland in the World Cup Germany 2006 Group Eight matches.

So Norway will be the third Scandinavian team to visit our shores in almost as many months. Although the encounter with Malta is billed as a friendly, the significance of such a match as a preparatory exercise along both countries’ World Cup route cannot be minimised.

Naturally, our team’s sights are mundane in this respect and a final placing just above the bottom of our group standings will be regarded with more than a modicum of satisfaction. The Norwegians, lying joint second behind Italy in Group Five, with seven points from four matches, harbour vastly superior pretentions as they aim for World Cup qualification, possibly also through a play-off.

Founded in 1902, Norway, like neighbours Finland, have striven hard along the years to emulate ‘big brother’, Sweden as a force to be reckoned in world football. Unlike Lars Lagerback’s Yellow-Blues, the Norwegians cannot boast of an impressive World Cup pedigree.

However, they can claim that they are one of a handful of countries to have beaten mighty Brazil in the finals of a World Cup tournament. That momentous day, which the Norwegians regard as the greatest in their football history, was in the 1998 World Cup Finals when they beat the four times world champions 2-1 in a group match before qualifying for the next stage of the competition.

Since then this Nordic country has had mixed fortunes on the big stage of international football. Statistics from January 2004 up to last week’s Middle East Tour reveal that Norway won 16 of their 32 friendly or competitive matches, drew nine and lost seven. Among their victims in these last months were Romania, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Northern Ireland, Russia, Scotland and Slovenia.

These victories helped them regain much-needed continental and global esteem, although a higher FIFA ranking than the current 36th position is a considered rather low by their standards. More covetous for them, though, is a place in the Germany 2006 World Cup finals, in which case the ‘respect graph’ for Norway will maintain its upward trend.

That is not beyond them when considering that several players in their squad command regular places in continental teams. In this regard, John-Arne Riise, Liverpool’s left flank player, John Carew and Sigurd Rushfeldt are three of the top ambassadors of their country.

Among their latest crop of talented players are Tromso IL goalkeeper Knut Borch, recently being courted by Arsenal, and team-mate Lars Iver Strand, a 21-year-old midfielder with goal-scoring propensity.

Coach Age Hareide can pick on more England-based players for his World Cup campaign, with the trio of Gamst Pedersen, Thomas Mhyre and Klaus Lundekvam complementing Swedish ‘exports’ and a host of others who ply their trade at home, mostly with top team Rosenborg BK, Tromso, Valerenga IF, Malmo FF, Lillestrom SK and SK Brann.

After last Friday’s match against Jordan, the Scandinavians will be keen to end their Middle East and Mediterranean parenthesis with an unbeaten sheet before resuming their World Cup commitments with a match in Moldova late in March.

The Norwegian squad for Wednesday's Malta v Norway match is as follows:

Espen Johnsen (Rosenborg), Thomas Myhre (Sunderland), Trond Andersen (Aalborg), Andre Bergdolmo (Borussia D.), John Carew (Besiktas), Hassan El Fakiri (Monaco), Erik Hagan (Zenit St Petersburg), Thorstein Helstad (Rosenborg), Magna Hoset (Kobenhavn), Steffen Iversen (Valerenga), Azar Karadas (Benfica), Frode Kippe (Lillestrom), Raymond Kvisvik (Brann), Tommy Svindal Larsen (Nurnberg), Claus Lundekvam (Southampton), Morten Gamst Pedersen (Blackburn), Sigurd Rushfeldt (Austria Wien), John Arne Riise (Liverpool), Petter Rudi (Molde), Stale Stensaas (Rosenborg).