Less than 48 hours after the controversial penalty award which stunned the sporting world in Marseille, the consequences of Kjetil Rekdal's successful kick were yesterday still reverberating through the World Cup, writes Peter Byrne.

For many, Brazil's 2-1 defeat by Norway was nothing more than a blip on the horizon of the champions, to be instantly erased when they meet Italy in the first of the knock-out games on Saturday. Others see in it the irrefutable evidence that exposed to the different priorities of European teams on European terrain, Brazil are still vulnerable.

It's true that with their place as table-toppers in Group A already safely secured, Brazil didn't have the same competitive edge as a Norwegian team fighting for survival in the competition.

And yet, that is to overlook the backdrop to a game which held a grudge element after Norway's 4-2 win over Brazil in one of their warmup games for France '98. On that occasion, Mario Zagallo didn't take too kindly to the post-match reaction of his Norwegian counterpart, Egil Olsen who boasted that he had devised a formula to stop them in their tracks.

Before Tuesday's game, the word among the Brazilian press was that Zagallo had been hurt by that claim and was intent on making them pay in Marseille.

That didn't happen and addressing Norwegian journalists yesterday, Olsen repeated his statement that instead of attempting to match the champions at their game, Europeans should insist on imposing their own style on the South Americans.

In his case, that meant a brand of football which was taken from the Jack Charlton manual. In his time with Ireland, Charlton was frequently accused of squeezing the skill out of football and reducing it to a game of chance, with his persistent use of the long ball played from the back.

That, of course, sold him and his players criminally short, overlooking the fact that this style, too, demanded art and athleticism. And if proof were needed, Norway provided it in abundance in Marseille.

For the moment, at least, Brazil will be glad to see the backs of their bogey opponents but Olsen doesn't rule out the possibility of meeting up again with them before the competition has run its course.

"At this point, I'm not ruling out anything," he said. "We showed in our performance in Marseille that we fully deserve to be among the last 16 teams in the championship.

"We've beaten the best and having done it the hard way, my players will certainly not fear Italy."