Jude Bellingham decided it, in the end, as he keeps deciding things for England. His brace turned a losing position into a 2-1 win over Norway after extra time at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on Saturday, and it sent England into the World Cup semi-finals. Norway go home. On the balance of the ninety, they will feel they deserved better.
This was not a stroll. The expected goals read 0.96 to 0.77 in England's favour, per ESPN's match centre, which tells you how little separated the sides. England's edge was in the finishing, not the football.
Bellingham the difference
Give the man his rating and it is the highest on the pitch. Bellingham scored both England goals, the first in first-half stoppage time on 45+2 to wipe out Norway's lead, the second in the 93rd minute to win it. The winner owed something to chaos: Morgan Rogers shot, the Norway goalkeeper spilled it, and Bellingham was quickest to the rebound. Predators live off those moments. He has now scored in successive knockout rounds, having also found the net in the last-16 win over Mexico, and he is comfortably England's talisman of this tournament.
Rogers deserves a nod too. His shot forced the error, and without it there is no rebound and no goal. It was the kind of contribution that never troubles a headline but wins a match.
Schjelderup and the men who kept Norway in it
Andreas Schjelderup gave Norway the lead they carried for most of the first half, a clean finish in the 36th minute that quietened England for a spell. For an hour or so it looked as though it might be enough. Norway had 48 per cent of the ball to England's 52, matched them shot for shot at 14 apiece, and their goalkeeper was the busier of the two, making six saves to England's three. Only in shots on target did England pull clear, eight to four, and that gap is the game in a single number.
Kristoffer Ajer and the Norway back line held firm through ninety minutes and into extra time before the resistance finally cracked. Ajer was booked in the 117th minute as the tie tightened and the fouls mounted, Norway conceding ten to England's eight. It was honest, physical defending from a side that gave England far more trouble than the bracket-watchers expected.
Haaland's night that never caught fire
Erling Haaland arrived in Miami as Norway's great hope and one of the tournament's scorers, but the quarter-final passed without the moment his talent promised. He could not inspire the win, and Norway's first deep World Cup run ends here. That is not a night to hang on him alone; the whole team fell one intervention short, and the intervention came from the other end. Still, the story of Norway's summer will be told partly through the games their No 9 could not quite drag over the line, and this was one of them.
Referee Clement Turpin let a good deal go and kept a firm grip on a tie that never boiled over. England, for all their pedigree, did not dominate. They simply took the two chances that mattered, and they had Bellingham.
What next for England
England are through to the last four and now wait. Their semi-final opponent will be the winner of Argentina against Switzerland, and on this evidence the manager will know a repeat of Saturday's finishing rather than Saturday's control is what carries them further. A deserved result, if not a performance to live long in the memory. For Norway, a hard exit and the sense of a chance that came and went in the space of a spilled save.
Sources
- ESPN, Norway 1-2 England: match stats and result
- CNN, England reach semifinal after Bellingham inspires 2-1 win over Norway
- FIFA, Norway v England 1-2: result, stats and highlights
- Business Standard, England beat Norway 2-1 after extra time, Bellingham brace
- ESPN, Haaland on Norway's chances before the quarter-final
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