Stephen Kenny says his side shot themselves in the foot by their failure to deal with Norway’s late free, which led to the match-winning goal.
Kenny’s side had battled back to get level in the second half, but in the dying minutes a Martin Odegaard free was not properly defended by Ireland and Norway pounced to score.
“The way they play, they are difficult to play through, they block up the middle of the pitch, there is spaces on the outside but we didn’t maximise that in the first half,” said Kenny.
“We didn’t create chances in the first half, in the second half we created three or four chances before we scored. We really got penetration from Matt Doherty and Callum O’Dowda in the second half, a lot of quality crosses.
[ Ireland show little fire as Ohi Omoijuanfo’s late goal secures victory for NorwayOpens in new window ]
“Alan Browne with a great goal and then we absolutely shot ourselves in the foot with the goal we conceded, it’s a really poor goal to concede.
“To concede the goal we did, we absolutely undid all of our good work to get back in the game, just a moment of not being able to defend that wide free-kick.”
Browne admitted the manner of conceding from a corner and a free was frustrating.
“I thought the first half we were a bit flat, there was no real zip to our game,” he said.
“I think second half we came out definitely the stronger of the two teams and it’s obviously disappointing to lose the game, it just fell to their player in the box which is unfortunate, but from our point of view to concede from two set-pieces is really poor.
[ TV View: Ireland just hoofing and poofing against Haaland-less NorwayOpens in new window ]
“We wanted to get the win here and also put on a performance so we have to look at what we can improve on now for the next game and hopefully it will be a much improved second game [in Malta].”
Browne’s second-half goal from outside the box brought Ireland level after a period of the game during which Ireland had got on top.
“It just came out to me, I had a bit of time, so I took a touch and thankfully my strike found the back of the net,” said Browne.
Norway boss Stake Solbakken felt his side had done enough over the course of the game to come away from Dublin with the win.
[ Ireland 1 Norway 2: How the Irish players ratedOpens in new window ]
“I think overall we had a few more chances than them and probably deserved to win,” said Solbakken.
“I think it was huge for us to get the win, I saw the statistics before the game that I think Ireland only had one loss here in nine or something. We have great respect for the Ireland team, they had their moments in the game and it was important for us to get the win.”
