Seething Norway boss Stale Solbakken has launched an astonishing attack on Scotland, branding them 'unprofessional' after cancelling a planned World Cup warm-up match at the eleventh hour without even a phone call.
Steve Clarke's squad were due to face Erling Haaland and Co in a closed-door friendly on Monday, intended to give minutes to players who saw little or no action in Scotland's 4-0 win over Bolivia on Saturday and Norway's 1-1 draw with Morocco.
However, the Norwegian FA announced on Sunday that the game had been scrapped, citing 'injuries' as the reason. Solbakken revealed he did not receive a call from Clarke, which he described as unprofessional.
'It was at least as surprising to me, and it is unprofessional of Scotland,' Solbakken said. 'It is unprofessional that the coach has not called me. It is unprofessional that they use the team manager and call Are (Hokstad) and say it after we have finished training yesterday.'
'I don't think the injuries they're blaming came in the last training. That's not the case. It's disappointing. It's unprofessional. But we have to live with that.'
Solbakken added: 'If this were me, I would have picked up the phone and explained. They (players) suffer a little from it, but then we have to make a different arrangement for them.'
Striker Alexander Sorloth backed up his boss, saying: 'You are affected of course, because it means that not everyone gets a good run-through. It's a shame. Maybe a little unprofessional of the Scots really. That match here has been ready for a very long time, so it's a shame.'
Arsenal star and captain Martin Odegaard added: 'Of course it's tough. We would have liked to have that match so that everyone could get proper match training, but that's life. We can't stand here and complain about it. We have to find solutions, so it's probably possible to train well and prepare in a different way.'
