We’re going to need a bigger longboat. Norway are into the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time, progressing thanks to the man whose smile, and choice in cowboy apparel, has charmed the US. Erling Haaland delivered again for his country, scoring two goals in the last 10 minutes – his sixth and seventh of the tournament – to send Brazil home and keep the Viking invasion rolling on.
The result is a massive vindication for Ståle Solbakken and the team he has built over the past half decade. Norway set out to dominate Brazil in the first half, without much in the way of success. A double substitution at half-time changed all that, with Norway able to carve open a Brazil side who had their chances but failed to take them.
Such a prospect was never likely with Haaland, who scored two goals from four attempts and has 30 goals in his past 17 competitive fixtures for Norway. The opening goal came with nine minutes to go, a cross from the substitute Andreas Schjelderup met with a towering leap above his club rival Gabriel Magalhães and a dagger header past Allison. As the game passed into added time Haaland struck again, granted space on the edge of the Brazil box to convert a Schjelderup pass low across goal. Norway’s talisman celebrated largely by just standing and smiling. His colleagues and the streak of Norwegian supporters behind the goal did the rest.
This had felt like an intriguing match-up, with Norway coming in off the back of their first World Cup knockout win and Brazil very much still a work in progress. Carlo Ancelotti surprised everyone by naming Gabriel Martinelli in his XI. A replacement for the injured Lucas Paquetá, Martinelli assumed Paquetá’s central midfield position – despite never playing there for his club – and was tasked not only with driving Brazil up the pitch but leading the Brazilian counter-press.
It was an unusual sight and while spectators were still trying to grasp the Brazilian formation, Norway had the ball in the net. In the third minute a lovely through ball from Martin Ødegaard allowed Julian Ryerson to cut the ball back to any number of waiting Norwegian attackers, with Patrick Berg applying the finishing touch. The flag went up against Ryerson, however, and VAR confirmed the call.
Another overturn worked in Brazil’s favour 10 minutes later. Matheus Cunha was taken out by Kristoffer Ajer at the end of a swift Brazil move, but the American referee Ismail Elfath said no penalty. VAR felt otherwise, clearly the correct decision, and Elfath reversed his call. The expectation was that this would be a moment for Vinícius Júnior, but Bruno Guimarães stepped up instead. Only an occasional taker for his club, he went for a stuttering run-up and saw a weak effort saved well by Ørjan Håskjold Nyland to the goalkeeper’s left. Ancelotti said the choice of taker had been made as a result of an internal statistical analysis.
Before the half was out both sides could have scored again, with Vinícius and Martinelli drawing saves from Nyland, and Martin Ødegaard capitalised on some penalty-area chaos in added time to force a decent stop from Alisson. Haaland, at this point, was largely peripheral.
At half-time Solbakken rebooted his side, withdrawing both wingers and bringing on Schjelderup and Oscar Bobb. Ancelotti made his first change shortly after, replacing Cunha with Endrick, and the teenager was in on goal within seconds. Superb vision from Vinícius sent Endrick clear but his first touch was heavy and, with space closing around him, he could only flick a left-foot shot wide.
Brazil began briefly to grow in possession and Norway started to play on the counter more often, a tactic that worked. Alisson was forced to turn away two decent crosses from the Norway left, and almost put one into the path of Haaland. Five minutes later sheer brute force from the Norwegian No 9 held off both Brazilian centre-halves and Schjelderup should have scored when played into the box.
Brazil made more changes, with no positive effect. Neymar, the hero of the Brazilian public, was destined to have his minutes from the bench, but as he went central, Endrick went wide, and disappeared from the game. Then with nine minutes to go, Guimarães – who had a strong game, penalty aside – was also withdrawn owing to fatigue. Norway took the lead within 60 seconds and doubled it 11 minutes later.
Ultimately, Neymar did get on the scoresheet. He did so by scoring a penalty with a stuttering run-up, in the ninth minute of seven minutes of added time. It was too late, however. As Neymar left the field in tears, an era came to end. But there’s another era under way and it is about to set sail for Miami.
