Clinical Norway hand Italy painful 3-0 defeat in World Cup qualifier

Oslo: Norway stunned Italy with a 3-0 win on Friday, handing the visitors a humiliating start to their World Cup qualifying campaign. In Group I, Norway lead the standings with nine points after three matches. Italy were playing their first match in the qualifying campaign.

The soaking wet home crowd had reason to cheer after 14 minutes when Alexander Sorloth timed his run perfectly onto a through ball from Antonio Nusa and slotted it home from close range.

Nusa lit up the night with a moment of brilliance after 34 minutes, controlling a pass with a slick first touch, bursting past two Italian defenders with a dazzling run, and drilling it in from the edge of the box.

Sorloth came close again just after the half-hour mark, slipping past Alessandro Bastoni on the right side of the box, but keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma reacted sharply to block a low, sneaky attempt at the near post.

The first-half rout continued when another through ball from Martin Odegaard found an unmarked Erling Haaland, who rounded Donnarumma to score Norway's third just before the break.

The continued pouring rain cooled the match down in second-half with Norway coming closest with Sander Berge sending a screamer into the post just after the hour mark, but no more goals were scored.

While Italy had most of the possession, their attacks were frequently broken down, resulting in only a single attempt on target. Lorenzo Lucca came closest for them in stoppage time with a header that was comfortably saved by Norwegian goalkeeper Orjan Nyland.