SCOTLAND: The Hampden visitors share a long absence from major finals with their hosts thanks to a dearth of native talent. Stewart Fisher reports

Since the arrival of the earliest Viking invaders back in 795AD there has been no shortage of connections between Norway and Scotland, with an extended absence from major football tournaments an unwanted addition to the list. Norway's last qualification for any major finals came in the European Championships of 2000, two years after Scotland's last appearance (the two nations played out a 1-1 draw at France 98). Logic may suggest that Scotland's recovery from the wilderness is also approximately two years ahead of their Group Nine rivals, but such a hypothesis will be tested come Hampden on Saturday.

Time delay or not, the game on both sides of the North Sea has been buffeted by the same ill winds. Where once an influx of foreign talent (ironically some of it Scandinavian) was blamed for a lack of Scottish talent being given a chance in the SPL, now the Norwegian Tippeliagen is in the same longboat. Neither is Scotland the only nation out there any more who likes to reminisce about the glory days when a core of their players were at the heart of many top English teams. Age Hareide's squad to face Scotland contains just three Premiership regulars, Aston Villa's John Carew, Morten Gamst Pedersen of Blackburn Rovers, and imposing Fulham centre half Brede Hangeland. In the mid-to-late 90s - with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Tore Andre Flo and Henning Berg blazing the trail - an entire international squad could be composed of English-based players alone.

"Norwegian football has definitely taken a few steps back from the mid 90s, the last 10 years has definitely seen a down swing," Arild Stavrum, the former Aberdeen striker, said. "The main reason is that we had so many more international-class players to choose from back then, you had dozens and dozens of players playing in England for example, and now we have only a few, and only Carew who is doing really well. A lot of foreigners have come into Norway and there is not so much native talent coming through, we have basically the same problem that a lot of other countries have had."

The question is whether, as with Scotland a few years ago, the nadir has already been reached. Observing the scenario in which the national team boss Hareide finds himself next week was like being thrust into the closing days of the Craig Brown regime. It is thought that two defeats against Scotland on Saturday then Holland three days later could see the pressure on his position become unbearable, although any change of manager would be undertaken reluctantly. The manager - who has the not inconsiderable achievement of three league titles in three different countries (Molde in Norway, Helsingborgs in Sweden, and Brondby in Denmark) - has twice gone close to taking the national team back to a major finals since taking over in 2004, and it is doubtful whether anyone else could do any better with the players at his disposal.

Stavrum - now a published novelist and manager of second division leaders Skeid of Oslo - worked under Hareide at both Molde and Helsingborgs. "I always had a good relationship with him, and he is a good manager but I think if we lose against Scotland and Holland then he will have a lot of problems," Stavrum said. "Having said that I think he is still the right man to manage Norway. Because the problem is not so much the manager as the fact we don't have enough good players at the moment. Although I don't personally see why they should change manager I know how it is in football. When things are going badly someone always calls to sack the manager, and sometimes that works out to be the correct decision, but this time I don't think that is the case."

Hareide has some big decisions to make. Remarkably, Gamst Pedersen is no longer assured of his first team place, some poor international performances seeing him left out of their only qualifier to date, the underwhelming 2-2 home draw with Iceland. Assuming he has shaken off the knock which prevented him from featuring in Rosenborg's Uefa Cup tie with Brondby on Thursday night, Steffen Iversen is likely to play just behind Carew in a 4-4-1-1 shape, hoping no doubt to reprise his goal from the penalty spot which gave Norway a 1-0 victory on their last visit to Hampden in 2004. Burley will hope that Scotland have improved more since than Norway have.

"I think Norway and Scotland are quite similar when it comes to quality so I think it will be a close game, and I am undecided at the moment, but I don't see that much improvement in Norwegian football at the moment," Stavrum said. "Hopefully I am wrong but I think Norwegian football is in a dip and it always show clearest when it comes to the national team."

There are at least some signs of progress on the horizon. Rosenborg's highly-rated Per Ciljan Skjelbred seems worth a risk in the wide areas, while uncapped forward Erik Huseklepp was outstanding in Brann Bergen's unfortunate penalty kick defeat against Deportivo La Coruna in midweek. But it is Carew - with five goals from his nine starts to date - who is the main danger, and reason enough for Norway's fans to remain positive.

"The next manager would still have to choose from the same pool of players so it wouldn't make that big a difference to get rid of Hareide," said former Celtic striker Harald Brattbakk, another who is remaining positive. "We have a lot of good individual players but there hasn't really been any correlation between good individual performances and team performances so I would say a draw is a good result for Norway because then we don't let Scotland get ahead of us."

For the record, Brattbakk is back playing part-time football at the age of 37, and has a new day job as a commercial airline pilot. Defeat at Hampden on Saturday, though, would leave another Norway qualification campaign struggling to get off the ground.