Viking named Haaland shone once again and carried Norway to the WC after 28 years

Norway, through the example of Stale Solbakken, could serve as a model for building a serious national team. They forgave the former Copenhagen coach for missing out on the World Cup in Qatar and the European Championship in Germany, believing that this team would reach its peak at the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

Perfect qualifiers, finished with eight wins from eight matches and a goal difference of 37:5, suggest that this peak may have arrived already.

Over the past three days, the big talk was that Italy needed a famous 9–0 win to qualify directly for the World Cup — but not only did they fail to reach 9–0, they were actually beaten 1–4 at San Siro in the middle of Milan! Erling Haaland scored twice and finished as the runaway top scorer of the qualifiers with 16 goals — an average of two per match (plus two assists).

Norway will appear at the World Cup for the first time since 1998, when they reached the Round of 16 before being knocked out by Italy 1–0. Christian Vieri scored the only goal, and among the Norwegian players that day was none other than Stale Solbakken. This victory serves as a kind of payback for that defeat.

Haaland has continued his unbelievable scoring streak since the start of the season. He has scored 32 goals in 19 matches for club and country. He has now reached 55 goals in 48 appearances for the national team.

Just how impressive the Manchester City striker is can be seen in the fact that in 2025 alone he has scored more goals (17) than Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane combined (16). For that matter, Mbappe has scored the same number of goals for France as Haaland has for Norway — but in as many as 94 matches.

Italy were lifted early tonight by scoring in the 11th minute through Francesco Esposito, and they decided to push even harder after halftime. Norway stayed patient, waited for their moment, and equalized in the 63rd minute through lively RB Leipzig forward Antonio Nusa. That was enough to completely unsettle the Azzurri’s back line, which Erling Haaland exploited by scoring twice in the space of two minutes (78th and 79th) to seal perfect qualifiers for his team.

Qualifying for the World Cup wasn’t enough for Norway — they wanted to do it in style. Strand Larsen made sure of that with a brilliant dribble and finish in the third minute of stoppage time. The Azzurri remain in second place, but now face a demanding challenge in the always dramatic playoffs.

2026 FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS - EUROPE

Sunday

Hungary - R. Ireland 2-3 (2-1)

/Lukacs 3, Varga 37 - Parrott 15 pen, 80, 90+6/

Portugal - Armenia 9-1 (5-1)

/Veiga 7, Neves 30, 41, 81, Ramos 28, Bruno 45+3 pen, 51, 72 pen, Conseisao 90+2 - Spertsjan 18/

Albania - England 0-2 (0-0)

/Kane 74, 82/

Azerbaijan - France 1-3 (1-3)

/Dadasov 4 - Mateta 17, Akliouche 30, Mahammadalyiev 45 og/

Serbia - Latvia 2-1 (0-1)

/Katai 49, Stankovic 60 - Gutkovskis 12/

Ukraine - Iceland 2-0 (0-0)

/Zubkov 83, Hutsuliak 90+3/

Israel - Moldova 4-1 (1-1)

/Turgeman 21 pen, Revivo 65, Peretz 85, Babohlo 88 og - Nicolaescu 37/

Italy - Norway 1-4 (1-0)

/Esposito 11 - Nusa 63, Haaland 78,79, Strand Larsen 90+3/