Leeds United captain Liam Cooper sizes up chance of Erling Haaland reunion with added warning

Cooper returned to action following a glute issue for the end of the Premier League season and the 31-year-old is part of the Scotland squad that face Norway in a Euros 2024 qualifier today in Oslo (5pm kick-off).

For Cooper, that could mean another battle with Manchester City striker sensation Haaland who the Whites skipper is naturally wary of yet Cooper has warned that Norway possess plenty of other threats too.

“With Erling, his goals and achievements speak for themselves,” said Cooper, as quoted by The Scotsman. “He has had an unbelievable season at club level, but I don’t like to disrespect the Norway team, they have a lot of good players and to put all our focus on one player, I think that would be wrong of us.

"We obviously know what Erling brings, he is an unbelievable player and unbelievable goalscorer, but we have to pay a lot of respect to the rest of the team as well. Obviously (Martin) Odegaard is a very good player, he has also been in a title challenge this year. They have got amazing players. We have to keep Erling and Odegaard in check, but there’s a lot of other players to worry about as well.”

Cooper added of Haaland: “For one, he doesn’t need many chances. So you can almost guarantee if he does get a chance it will go away. He is strong, he is powerful and he is always on your shoulder, always looking to get in behind.

"Obviously if we are not on top of our game and we are not cautious of that, he can damage us and he can hurt us. But I don’t want to disrespect the rest of the team. We have got to look after the whole of the Norway team and that’s the way it will be. We are going to need a big performance, especially a defensive performance. Hopefully we can get that, the boys are dialled in, and get a positive result.”