‘Missing Euro 2008 still hurts’

Feb 6 2008 by Simon Kendal-Williams, South Wales Echo

NORWAY striker John Carew admits his country is still trying to come to terms with their Euro 2008 failure.

The Norwegians came within a point of qualifying for this summer’s finals, only to be pipped at the post by Turkey.

And the 28-year-old Aston Villa frontman, who will lead the line against Wales tonight (7.45pm), says it is proving difficult for his team-mates to shake off the disappointment.

He said: “We still find it hard to understand why we didn’t make it.

“We just needed a point from our final home game with Turkey and still could not achieve that.

“That happens, but it was very disappointing.

“You think about it for weeks and weeks and wonder how it happened.

“Then when the draw is made for the finals, you think about it again.

“It has been hard to get over it.

“We won almost all the matches. Only Germany and Slovakia scored more goals than us

“We scored 27 goals and still didn’t qualify. There are positive things.

“We created 100 chances in 12 games, few can say they did that.

“So we will build for the World Cup, but use very much the same players because there was not that much wrong.

“We must learn from the mistakes.

“So if we face the same sort of thing, play-offs and things like that, we will have the experience to cope.”

Carew, who is set to earn his 69th cap at Wrexham, believes his team can set an example to Wales as an equally small country who have qualified regularly for major finals.

He said: “Wales must realise they can also build and qualify.

“We have seen how they are doing that with a lot of new young players, so it is a new era for them and also for us.

“There are only four million people in Norway so that is not much different to Wales.

“It shows it can be done because 10 years or so ago we qualified regularly, three or four times in a row.”