The Norwegians are seen as dark horses for this summer's tournament in North America – with Premier League stars such as Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard in their squad – but the coach has urged fans to remember that this is their first appearance at the finals since 1998.

Asked how his team will deal with expectation, Solbakken told World Soccer magazine: "We have to live with that, but the same group of fans mustn't forget that we haven't been there for 28 years. So I think we should enjoy it first and foremost and see if we can play to our best. Then we will see how long we can stay in the tournament.

"We are very down to earth and we know that the World Cup will be difficult. We are in a very tough group with Senegal, France and Iraq, so there's no chance of overconfidence."

Solbakken admits that it is hard to explain why Norway have been away from the World Cup stage for so long.

He said: "I think that's a long, long explanation. First of all, we have probably not been good enough. That's the simple reason.

"But I also think that there have been some strange incidents where we should have won but made big mistakes. In the early 2000s, there were some terrible goalkeeping mistakes.

"We had some big mistakes against Scotland towards the (2024) Euros in Germany. But, overall, I think we have not been good enough."

Norway won all eight of their qualifiers for the tournament and Solbakken is confident his team can do "something good" at the World Cup if they can replicate that performance level.

Quizzed on what a successful World Cup will be for the team, he said: "I don't think I will measure it in results. If we can play to our best level but are well beaten, then it's okay.

"But hopefully we can play as well as we did in the qualification, then I think we have a fair chance of doing something good in the World Cup."