I was relieved to see debut boy's blunder, says Norway star John Arne Riise

Oct 12 2008 By Gavin Berry

JOHN ARNE RIISE admitted he was certain Chris Iwelumo was offside in the build-up to his stunning chance and breathed a huge sigh of relief when the Scotland striker blew it.

The Roma defender stopped play and allowed the ball to fall to the Wolves man because he was waiting for the linesman's flag to go up.

However, after play raged on Iwelumo had what looked like a simple tap-in but managed to fire wide to let the ex-Liverpool man off the hook.

The Norwegian said afterwards: "First of all, I was sure the player was offside and just left him to go because I was so certain.

"I'm not so sure now when I look back at it but when the referee didn't blow his whistle and I saw him miss the chance I couldn't believe it."

Riise was happy to leave Hampden with a hard fought World Cup qualifying point that helps them in their fight for second spot in Group Nine. He said: "Scotland are ahead of us at the moment and we have a tough game against Holland on Wednesday which we're looking forward to. After that we'll all have played three games so we'll have a better idea."

"We don't have to get a result against Holland but obviously it would help our qualification chances. We worked hard at Hampden so we'll get over this and concentrate on Wednesday.

"We came to win but knew we'd have to withstand pressure in the first 15-20 minutes So we just sat back, stayed compact and weathered the storm. Then we took over a bit and created some chances of our own.

"The same happened in the second half when we had a spell under pressure but we kept a good defensive line and fought well.

"We should have had a penalty when John Carew was dragged down but overall I felt the referee was good and handled the game well."

And Riise insists the Norwegians weren't let down when it came to the Hampden experience.

He said: "A draw was a fair result. We won the game possession-wise but Scotland put a lot of pressure on us especially in the second half.

"We're satisfied with the draw and I think Scotland will be slightly disappointed after THAT chance but we could have won it at the end when Carew went through on goal.

"The atmosphere at Hampden was great again. When we were waiting on the Scotland players coming out for the second half I was almost singing with the fans it was so good."