Norway and England clash in World Cup quarter-finals

By Ian King

Both England and Norway put in superb performances to get this far

England’s 2026 World Cup took a turn in the last 16 with a tumultuous 3-2 at the Azteca against co-hosts Mexico. Two Jude Bellingham goals and a Harry Kane penalty were enough to see them through a game which felt more like a siege for its final half-hour following the sending off of Jarell Quansah. 

Norway, meanwhile, continue to impress. They continued their psychological hold over Brazil with a 2-1 win in the last 16, and a performance that was far more dominant than the final score might suggest with another two goals for Erling Haaland, who seems to already be in the process of becoming the breakout global superstar of this tournament. 

Both teams, then, have built up a degree of momentum following slightly underwhelming ends to the group stage, with England looking more workmanlike than anything else against both Ghana and Panama, and Norway’s second-string getting beaten 4-1 by France in their final match, although this came with their qualification for the knockout stage already confirmed. 

The first time England travelled to Oslo for a competitive match, they took “a hell of a beating”

Somewhat worryingly for England their record against Norway in competitive matches is, to say the least, patchy. They were drawn together in qualification for the 1982 World Cup and England won their first meeting 4-0, but they lost the return match in Oslo in September 1981 – the match in which Maggie Thatcher’s “boys took a hell of a beating”, as the Norwegian radio commentator Bjorge Lillelien famously put it – and almost failed to qualify for what would have been the third time in a row. 

Things were even worse for England in qualification for the 1994 World Cup finals, with a 1-1 draw at Wembley and a 2-0 defeat in Oslo in the return match. The group ended with Norway and the Netherlands qualifying and England out, and manager Graham Taylor losing his job. Since then, the two sides have played each other four times, with two 1-0 England wins and two goalless draws. 

England could need a big performance from their goalkeeper against a rampant Erling Haaland

One of the more curious performances in the England team of this tournament has been that of goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, who looked out of sorts in the run-up to the tournament but put in an excellent performance in Mexico City in the last round. With there being little to choose between these two teams, there remains every possibility that Thomas Tuchel could be depending on him in a penalty shootout at the end of this match.

All the attention on Norway has, of course, been focused on the boy Haaland, but it’s also worth keeping an eye on another wunderkind of theirs, Antonio Nusa of RB Leipzig. Nusa was hauled off at half-time against Brazil, but the 21-year-old winger is extremely highly-rated, and he’s the only other player beyond Haaland to have scored for them in the knockout stages of the competition. 

Right-back has rapidly become a poisoned chalice of a position for England

The right-back spot has become England’s biggest question mark throughout this tournament. Jarell Quansah was surprisingly – or not, given the extent to which FIFA seem to be making this sort of thing up as they go along – suspended for two matches for his red card against Mexico. Reece James faces a battle to be fit in time, with Djed Spence on standby if he doesn’t make it. 

We can probably expect Anthony Gordon and Bukayo Saka to start again on the wings, but there could be further defensive reshuffles, with Dan Burn in possible contention following an impressive cameo in the closing stages of the Mexico match as England sought to batten down their hatches. Jordan Henderson is now out for the tournament, having achieved the sensational double-whammy of both picking up a yellow card and injuring himself despite not actually playing a single minute of the Mexico match.

Norway have no injury or suspension issues going into this meeting. David Møller Wolfe, the onomatopoeically-named Wolves right-back, was withdrawn against Brazil but is expected to be fit again. Otherwise, head coach Ståle Solbakken’s biggest headache is the best sort of managerial headache; he has too many players in decent form for the positions he needs to fill. Oscar Bobb and Andreas Schjelderup both impressed after coming on against Brazil and could replace Alexander Sørloth and Antonio Nusa.

There is one extremely large obstacle to England’s progression to the semi-finals

Their last four friendly meetings may have only produced two goals, but there is a promise of entertainment from this fixture. England and Norway have played ten games between them in this summer’s finals, yet they’ve only managed two clean sheets combined, both of them by England against relatively modest opposition – Ghana and Panama – in the group stages. 

Both teams have incredible attacking options. Both Harry Kane and Erling Haaland are well in their stride, with six and seven goals already scored respectively, while there have also been excellent performances from their support. And both teams – England with their right-back quandary and Norway with their lack of clean sheets – have defences which can be got at. 

The upshot of all this is that there really is so little to choose between these two teams that it’s not difficult to imagine this match ending in a reasonably high-scoring draw and a penalty shootout. At the time of writing (before Spain and Belgium play), there have only been four of them from 25 knockout matches. By way of comparison, there had been five by this stage in 2022, when they didn’t even have a round of 32. For these two teams, it seems likely that it’ll be a long, tense afternoon in Miami. 

(Cover image from IMAGO)

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