Norway reach a first World Cup quarter-final and get an England side built to win it all
Erling Haaland’s Norway are into the last eight for the first time in their history. Waiting for them in Miami on July 11 is Thomas Tuchel’s England, and a fixture that carries more history than the rankings suggest.
Jul 6, 2026
Norway have never been this far. When they walk out at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Saturday, July 11, it will be the first World Cup quarter-final in the country’s history, and standing in the way is an England side assembled and paid to win the whole thing. For Indian viewers it is a deep-night watch: kick-off is 5pm in Miami, which lands at 2:30am IST in the early hours of Sunday. Set an alarm anyway, because this one has the makings of a proper tie.
Norway arrive on the back of the result of the tournament so far. Erling Haaland scored twice in the final eleven minutes to knock Brazil out, his sixth and seventh goals of the World Cup, sending the five-time champions home at the last-16 stage. It was the kind of night Norway have spent a generation waiting for. This is their first appearance at a World Cup since France 1998, and their manager, Stale Solbakken, was in that squad as a player. The symmetry is hard to miss. Norway beat Brazil 2-1 in the group stage in 1998, then beat them 2-1 again to reach this quarter-final, and Solbakken has been in the middle of both.
An old ghost for England
England will not need reminding of what Norway can do to them. The two countries share a short but pointed history. In 1981, Norway beat England 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier in Oslo, the result that produced Bjorge Lillelien’s delirious radio commentary and the line about Maggie Thatcher’s boys taking “a hell of a beating.” The teams have met a handful of times since, but never in a major tournament. Saturday is the first time a World Cup or a Euros has thrown them together, which lends an otherwise lopsided-looking tie an edge the FIFA rankings do not.
Thomas Tuchel’s England reached the last eight the hard way. They won 3-2 at a hostile Azteca, went 3-1 up through a two-minute Jude Bellingham brace and a Harry Kane penalty, then had Jarell Quansah sent off early in the second half and spent more than forty minutes hanging on with ten men as Mexico threw everything at them. It was not comfortable and it was not always pretty, but it was the sort of result England have too often failed to grind out at tournaments. Tuchel was hired to win this World Cup and accept nothing less. His team are now two wins from the final.
Haaland against a back four with a job to do
The tie will hinge, inevitably, on Haaland. England’s centre-backs know him well from the Premier League, and that cuts both ways. They understand his movement, and they also know exactly how much damage he does the moment a defence switches off. Quansah’s suspension for the red card leaves Tuchel a selection puzzle at the back for the biggest game of his reign so far. Around Haaland, Norway have real quality in Martin Odegaard, the Arsenal captain who runs their midfield, and a side that no longer looks content just to be at the party.
England remain favourites, and on paper they should be. They have the deeper squad, the bigger names through the spine, and a manager with a Champions League on his record. But Norway have already ended one favourite’s tournament in this round, and they will back a single Haaland moment to do to England what it did to Brazil. Quarter-finals are where England’s tournaments have so often turned, for better and for worse. This time the opponent is a Norway team finally growing into its talent, carrying a bit of history that neither side can do much about.