Twenty-eight years after their last appearance on the game's biggest stage, Norway are somewhere they have never been before. For the first time in their history they have reached a World Cup quarter-final, and they have arrived there carried by the most talked-about striker of the tournament. It is a leap that reframes what this Norwegian generation is capable of.
From outsiders to the last eight
Norway's return to a World Cup, their first since 1998, was supposed to be about the occasion. Instead it has become a run that few outside the country saw coming. They finished runners-up in Group I behind France, beating Iraq and Senegal before losing 4-1 to the French, France 24 reported. In the round of 32 Erling Haaland struck an 86th-minute winner to see off Cote d'Ivoire 2-1, and in the last 16 he produced the performance that has defined the tournament so far.
On 5 July at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Norway beat five-time champions Brazil 2-1, with Haaland scoring both goals. According to Al Jazeera, the result was Brazil's earliest World Cup exit since 1990. What had looked like a routine step for the favourites became, in the space of an afternoon, the upset of the competition.
Haaland's star turn
The striker's personal tally now reads seven goals in four matches at his first World Cup, a haul that places him among the leaders of the adidas Golden Boot race alongside Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, Yahoo Sports reported. His brace against Brazil extended his run of scoring in consecutive internationals to 14 matches, and lifted his overall record to 62 goals in 51 caps for Norway.
The scoring did not begin in the United States. Haaland was UEFA's top scorer in World Cup qualifying with 16 goals, finding the net in every game of a perfect Norwegian campaign. For a player who has waited his entire senior career for this stage, the meaning is plain. "Ever since I made my international debut in 2019, my big goal has been to get Norway to a World Cup and Euros," he told GQ.
He has not done it alone. Captain and playmaker Martin Odegaard, of Arsenal, has been Norway's chief creator, registering assists through the run and, according to the numbers cited in the build-up to the tie, completing more passes to Haaland than any other teammate at the tournament.
England, and a plan to stop him
Norway's reward is a quarter-final against England on Saturday 11 July in Miami, with a place in the semi-finals for the winner. Thomas Tuchel's side arrive as the more decorated nation and with recent history on their side: England won both previous meetings between the countries, 1-0 friendlies in 2012 and 2014, as Goal.com noted in its preview.
The central question, as Sky Sports framed it, is whether Tuchel can devise a plan to contain Haaland while also cutting off Odegaard's supply line. Shut down the pair, and England should progress. Fail to, and Norway's story could stretch into territory that felt unthinkable when the draw was made.
For a nation that had gone a generation without a World Cup, simply being present was the achievement. Now, one win from the semi-finals, Norway are asking a very different question, with FIFA's own preview casting the tie as the defining test of their run.
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