Full Time
England needed extra time to beat Norway 2-1 in Miami and book a World Cup semi-final spot for the first time since 2018. Andreas Schjelderup put Norway ahead just before half-time, only for Jude Bellingham to level things in first-half stoppage time and then win it with a poacher's finish three minutes into extra time, pouncing after Norway keeper Orjan Nyland spilled Morgan Rogers' shot. It was a disciplined, largely incident-free game - no red cards, just a late yellow for Norway's Kristoffer Ajer arguing a decision he was never going to win. England now head to Atlanta to face Argentina on Wednesday; Norway are out, but a first World Cup quarter-final since 1998 is nothing to be ashamed of.
Pre-match Talking Points
-
1England are one win away from a World Cup semi-final, having scraped through two knockout games that both went the hard way - a late Kane brace against DR Congo, then a 3-2 win over Mexico played mostly with ten men. Lose tonight and it's back home early despite topping their group. Norway are through to a quarter-final for the first time in their history, having already knocked out Brazil to get here, so a win would be, without exaggeration, the single biggest result Norwegian football has ever produced.
-
2England and Norway have previous, and it's not the boring kind. Back in 1981 Norway beat England 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier in Oslo, and Norwegian radio commentator Bjorge Lillelien lost his mind live on air afterwards, ranting about Margaret Thatcher, Lord Nelson and Winston Churchill taking "a hell of a beating." It's one of the most replayed clips in football history. England have had the better of things since, but don't be surprised if a Norwegian fan brings it up regardless of tonight's result.
-
3Erling Haaland has been the story of Norway's whole tournament - he scored a late winner against Ivory Coast in the round of 32, then bagged a brace to knock out five-time champions Brazil in the round of 16. He's now firmly in the Golden Boot conversation alongside Mbappe and Messi. Put simply, if Norway are going to beat England, it's very likely going to be because of him.
-
4England's defence is looking shaky at the worst possible time. Jarell Quansah is suspended after a red card against Mexico, Reece James has missed the last three matches, and with kickoff just hours away, both Declan Rice and Marc Guehi skipped training this week as a sickness bug does the rounds in camp. Jordan Henderson, meanwhile, is out of the tournament entirely after hurting his wrist celebrating the win over Mexico - which is either very funny or very England, depending how it goes tonight. Norway have had their own bug scare too, so nobody's arriving at full fitness.
-
5Whatever happens tonight, Norway have already done something no Norwegian team has managed before - reaching a World Cup quarter-final on their first appearance at the tournament since 1998. Throw in a Haaland in career-best form and an England side that keeps making easy games look nearly impossible, and this has the makings of the most unpredictable match of the round. Worth watching even if neither shirt means anything to you.
Team Talking Points
-
1England beat France 6-4 in Miami last night to take third place at the 2026 World Cup — their best finish since they won the whole thing outright in 1966. Ten goals in one match is a new record for a third-place game, the highest-scoring one in World Cup history. Bronze isn't gold, but it's the best England have managed in sixty years, so let them have this one.
-
2Bukayo Saka came off the bench and scored a hat-trick — his second for England — having been dropped for the semi-final defeat to Argentina in favour of Morgan Rogers. He'd spent the days before insisting he was fully fit and wanted more minutes; three goals later, he'd made the point better than any interview could. Drop this in and you'll sound like you've been tracking the team sheet all tournament.
-
3Jude Bellingham got in on it too, scoring deep into stoppage time for his seventh goal of the tournament — the kind of tally that puts him right in the conversation for the competition's top scorer, even in a match that didn't count for silverware.
-
4France weren't just making up the numbers either — Kylian Mbappé scored twice and, somewhere in the chaos, became the World Cup's all-time leading scorer, overtaking Messi's old record of 21. It's a genuinely huge milestone that got almost completely buried under the goalfest around it.
-
5Manager Thomas Tuchel had grumbled beforehand that 'nobody wants to play' the third-place match, then watched his team produce one of the most entertaining games of the whole tournament. He's since talked about the semi-final exit leaving 'scars' England will use as fuel heading into Euro 2028 — so treat bronze as the start of a comeback story, not the end of one.
🍺
Top thing to say down the pub
Saka came off the bench and banged in a hat-trick in a 6-4 game against France — bronze medal, best England finish since '66, and he wasn't even supposed to be on that long.
🚫
Avoid saying
"So they lost, then?" — England just won a bronze medal in the highest-scoring third-place game in World Cup history, with a Saka hat-trick from the bench. Lead with the semi-final defeat instead of that and you'll sound like you switched off after the Argentina game.
-
1Norway's tournament ended in the quarterfinal, beaten 2-1 by England on July 12 — heartbreak, but the end of the best World Cup run in the country's history.
-
2This was Norway's first World Cup since 1998, a 28-year wait finally over after a perfect qualifying campaign: eight wins from eight, scoring 37 goals along the way, eight more than any other qualifier. They did not arrive as tourists.
-
3The high point, and one of the moments of the whole tournament, was beating five-time champions Brazil 2-1 in the round of 16 on July 5. Erling Haaland scored twice in the last eleven minutes to send Brazil out of a World Cup earlier than they had at any point since 1990.
-
4Haaland was the obvious headline act — goals in the win over Brazil, top scorer for his country all tournament — but captain Martin Ødegaard was the calm head running the midfield underneath him, the reason Norway looked composed rather than just dangerous.
-
5A first-ever World Cup quarterfinal after 28 years in the wilderness is not a bad way to end a 'please just qualify for once' era. Norway go home as one of the genuine stories of the tournament, and nobody who watched it will forget the name Haaland.
🍺
Top thing to say down the pub
Norway hadn't been to a World Cup since 1998, turned up and knocked Brazil out with a Haaland double in the last 11 minutes — one of the stories of the whole tournament, full stop.
🚫
Avoid saying
Don't say 'shame they've only got Haaland' — Ødegaard ran an entire midfield to a first-ever quarterfinal. This was not a one-man show, even if the finishing was.