Moldova had won their previous three games at home against teams ranked no higher than 168th, but the realisation that this would be a sterner test arrived within five minutes.
Goalkeeper Dumitru Celeadnic collided with teammate Artur Craciun when attempting to catch a cross and spilled the ball at the feet of Thelo Aasgaard, who helped it onto Julian Ryerson for him to slam home his first international goal. Just 10 minutes later, another cross found Erling Haaland, whose volley bounced into the ground and went a whisker over the crossbar.
However, Haaland soon opened his account for the campaign midway through the half when he was on hand to slot the ball home following a beautiful team move involving Martin Odegaard, Alexander Sorloth, and Andreas Schjelderup, which began in the visitors’ half.
The home side finally troubled Løvene goalkeeper Orjan Nyland after 33 minutes when he tipped Mihail Caimacov’s free-kick over the bar, shortly before Norway added a third.
The home side failed to clear an Odegaard corner and Aasgaard was on hand to beat Celeadnic at the near post. But Odegaard wasn’t done there, curling in another corner just before the interval for Sorloth to flick into the far corner for Norway’s fourth.
With the chance of a turnaround unlikely, Serghei Cleșcenco’s side began the second half intent on ruining Nyland’s clean sheet, which he preserved by saving from Nichita Moțpan and Ion Nicolaescu. At the other end, Celeadnic somehow clutched Kristoffer Ajer’s close-range strike to prevent a Norwegian fifth.
He could only prevent it until the 69th minute though, when another swift attack ended with Ryerson squaring to Aron Dønnum, who guided the ball past Celeadnic with a cool finish.
That rounded off the scoring in what is just a third away win in nine for Stale Solbakken’s team, who have now recorded back-to-back 5-0 wins. Moldova, meanwhile, remain without a H2H victory and see their losing run against Norway extend to five matches.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Julian Ryerson (Norway)
