Goalkeepers and defenders: Exhale.
Europe’s most feared striker will not play in the European Championship.
It is because Erling Haaland’s Norway did not qualify.
Haaland’s goal statistics for both club and country are staggering: 90 goals in 98 appearances in all competitions across two seasons with Manchester City, and 30 in 32 appearances for Norway since making his national team debut in 2019.
But Halaand scored “just” five goals in six qualifying matches for Norway, who finished third in Group A behind Spain and Scotland and didn’t even make the playoffs.
Norway’s absence also means that Arsenal and Norway captain Martin Odegaard will not be at the tournament in Germany.
Norway won just three of the eight qualifiers and finished six points behind group runners-up Scotland.
A look at some other key players who won’t be at Euro 2024, which starts Friday:
Thibaut Courtois was healthy enough to make two important saves during the first half of the Champions League final and help Real Madrid win another title.
But the Belgian goalkeeper announced in December that he would miss the Euros and has not backed down from his decision despite returning to full fitness for Real Madrid following a prolonged knee injury.
There is also this: there is continuous voltages between Courtois and Belgian coach Domenico Tedesco.
Courtois questioned Tedesco’s “reality” after the coach accused him of abandoning his teammates and faking an injury before last year’s qualifiers.
Without the Madrid goalkeeper, Tedesco’s choices in goal are: Matz Sels (Nottingham Forest), Koen Casteels (Wolfsburg) and Thomas Kaminski (Luton).
Benzema retired from the French national team one day after “Les Bleus” lost the 2022 World Cup final without the striker.
Then, last year, he left Real Madrid for Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ittihad, and now, at 36, his days at the top appear to be over.
Benzema was awarded the Ballon d’Or as the world’s best player in 2022, but then missed the World Cup in Qatar that year after tearing a muscle in his left thigh in pre-tournament training.
He also did not play in France’s victorious 2018 World Cup campaign because he was still exiled from the national team for his alleged role in a sex tape scandal with teammate Mathieu Valbuena.
French coach Didier Deschamps has many options in the attack without Benzema, led by captain Kylian Mbappé. France’s other forwards include Bradley Barcola, Kingsley Coman, Ousmane Dembélé, Olivier Giroud, Randal Kolo Muani and Marcus Thuram.
Two more missing former France players are midfielder Paul Pogba, who is serving a doping suspension, and defender Lucas Hernandez, who recently underwent surgery after tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament.
The Manchester United striker paid the price for a disappointing season at club level and failed to be selected in England manager Gareth Southgate’s initial 33-man squad.
Rashford scored just eight goals for a United team who suffered their worst Premier League result – their eighth.
The omission comes just two seasons after Rashford enjoyed the best campaign of his career, scoring 34 goals for club and country.
Jack Grealish, Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson – who played in the final when England lost to Italy in a penalty shootout in 2021 – were also left out by Southgate.
“These are difficult decisions, we are talking about players who are very good, who were an important part of what we did,” said Southgate. “With Marcus, I feel like players in the same area of the field have had better seasons, it’s as simple as that.”
Reaching the Champions League final was not enough for Mats Hummels to be called up for hosts Germany.
Hummels made a strong case for inclusion with his inspiring performances in Borussia Dortmund’s European campaign. But Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann said there were “1,000 components” in the decision not to include the veteran defender. Nagelsmann sees Real Madrid’s Antonio Rüdiger and Bayer Leverkusen’s Jonathan Tah as his preferred central defensive pairing – and anyone else would need to settle for a backup role.
Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck is evidently happy to take on the substitute role and was part of the team.
Bayern Munich midfielder Leon Goretzka also missed out despite a strong end to the Bundesliga season.
Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali is serving a 10-month ban for betting on teams he played for – ruling him out of consideration for defending champions Italy.
This leaves coach Luciano Spalletti without his main choice as a playmaker, but makes room for names like Jorginho and Lorenzo Pellegrini.
Tonali looked set to inherit the role that once belonged to Andrea Pirlo, setting the pace and guiding the Italian team’s attack.
Several other Italian players are injured: Domenico Berardi, Nicolò Zaniolo, Francesco Acerbi and Giorgio Scalvini.
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This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
