The day Norway gave England a 'beating'

If Norway's Under-21 footballers are looking for inspiration ahead of Saturday's Group A showdown with England, they could do worse than sit down with a member of their own delegation in Tel Aviv for a trip down memory lane.

Now vice-president of the Football Association of Norway (NFF), Bjarne Berntsen was a player in the team which stunned England in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in 1981, back in the days when half of their squad were still amateurs.

"A historic moment" is how Berntsen, then a primary school teacher playing his football for Viking FK, remembers it as he looks back from a distance of three decades on that 2-1 victory on 9 September 1980 – Norway's first in six attempts against England.

It was a result nobody could have anticipated after their 4-0 defeat at Wembley the previous September, when, as Berntsen concedes, they showed "too much respect" for a football culture long admired in the Nordic country. "The weekly Saturday English football had always been very, very popular in Norway," Berntsen tells UEFA.com. "From childhood we had our idols and teams. There were stories in the newspapers that said the Norwegian players were too satisfied just to go to Wembley and maybe that was a bit true."

Norway celebrate a historic win©Getty Images

Twelve months later, though, Tor Røste Fossen's team were ready to make amends. "We have a big tradition in Norway in August and September – we play very well at home because we are in the middle of the season. We really wanted to have revenge."

That said, the revenge mission did not start well as Bryan Robson shrugged off Berntsen, who was playing at right-back, to put Ron Greenwood's England in front. "I was the last man he got past," he recalls. "Luckily we came back and got two goals in the first half." The first came when Roger Albertsen got a touch to turn Tom Lund's near-post cross past Ray Clemence. Then Hallvar Thoresen made it 2-1. "We also had some great chances in the second half because they were pushing forward and we had a lot of good counterattacks and should have scored more goals."

The final whistle was the cue for one of the most famous pieces of football commentary for Norwegian – and English – football fans as the excited Bjørge Lillelien, from state broadcaster NRK, began listing the names of famous English figures past and present – from Lord Nelson to Lady Diana. Then came his piece de resistance, delivered in English: "Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me, Maggie Thatcher – your boys took a hell of a beating!"

Kevin Keegan in action against Norway©Getty Images

"As we were involved in the game we didn't hear it," says Berntsen of a commentary classic, which has become "more famous with time". At that moment, though, Berntsen was too busy with other matters – like getting "the No7 shirt" of his hero Kevin Keegan. He remembers the "electric atmosphere" in Oslo afterwards and the huge lift that the result provided, even if Norway still ended their World Cup campaign bottom of the qualifying group.

"It was very, very important for the home nation that little Norway could show they could beat the great England. The most important thing was the motivation for young people to really see that if you believe hard enough you can achieve great things."

Achieving great things is the goal for a new generation of Norwegian footballers, and Berntsen is optimistic. He has been involved in football management and administration for most of the past 30 years – with three spells as Viking's managing director, and head coach roles with both Viking and the Norway women's team – and sees today's U21 team as beneficiaries of a shift in focus in Norwegian football, towards youth development.

"We have the advantage that there have been some economic challenges for clubs," he explains. "We have a very strict licensing system that doesn't allow the clubs to use a lot more money than they have, which means that where five, six years ago clubs spent a lot of money on foreign players, they now spend more money on developing players.

England beat Norway in qualifying©Getty Images

"In this team there are some very good technical players, especially in midfield, who need the ball a lot," he continues. "The development programme we have is much more focused on producing players with skills and who can do a lot with the ball. At the same time we think we have solid Norwegian organisation behind us."

So to another contest with England, and Berntsen's hopes of a victory at Ha Moshava Stadium on Saturday. Although Tor Ole Skullerud's side were held by Israel on Wednesday, he takes heart from their performance – "we counted 11 big chances and three to them" – and draws further encouragement from the way Norway played in two narrow defeats by England in qualifying. "Maybe we played our best game in the qualification [round] in Chesterfield," he says. "We think we have a chance if we have a good day.

"If we win, England are out, so they will have quite a lot of pressure. We know that a draw can be a good result; a win is a great result. Because England were going into the tournament as one of the favourites I think they have a lot of pressure on themselves." England under pressure? Sounds just like a certain autumn evening back in 1981 ...