Erling Haaland’s second-half brace saw Norway beat Senegal 3-2 at the MetLife Stadium as Stale Solbakken’s side join France in the last 32 of the World Cup.
After both Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe scored twice in Argentina and France respectively, it was no surprise to see the Man City striker respond with his 58th and 59th goals in Norway in his 52nd international, and the in-form mark has been registered in his last 12 games against his country.
In fact, the 25-year-old was disappointed not to have scored a hat-trick in New York in a clash that some thought might not happen at all after fans were briefly evacuated from the stadium during heavy rain nearly four hours before kick-off as a flood watch was issued by the US National Weather Service for nearby New York.
However, the rain that had been predicted during the match did not go away, allowing Norway to record their second win of the tournament, more than they had won in all their previous World Cup matches and they now face France on Friday to decide who wins Group I.
Senegal, on the other hand, will need to score in their last match against Iraq if they want to join Norway and France in the competition.
Key moments from New York…
43 – GOAL! Sub Pedersen opened the scoring after mistakes by Koulibaly and Mendy
45 – SEND IT! Haaland hits another Mendy mistake in the post
48 – GOAL! Haaland guns home into the roof of the net to become Norway’s all-time leading scorer at the World Cup!
53 – GOAL! Ismaila Sarr pulls one back with a superb finish after being set up by Mane’s fine flick on the edge of the box.
58 – GOAL! Haaland’s close-range finish restores Norway’s two-goal cushion
90+3 – GOAL! Ismaila Sarr’s combined finish puts an end to a nervy finish in East Rutherford
Anything Messi and Mbappe can do, Erling can match
You saw from the start in New Jersey on Monday night that Erling Haaland represented this, no doubt fired up by watching the likes of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe both make headlines after scoring twice in their previous club matches.
He didn’t end there, this striker scored his own goal in the rain in East Rutherford and became the top scorer in Norway at the World Cup and helped his team to advance to the knockout stage, where in this type of form he will not want to face.
The Man City defender was visibly upset at half-time after spurning a good chance seconds before to hit the post following another blunder by Edouard Mendy.
But when the next chance came moments later, his finish was clinical, as was the second just before the hour mark, meaning he has now scored at least one goal in 18 of the last 21 games for the national team.
Not only that, but Haaland also became only the sixth player to score more goals in his first two World Cup matches to set a mark for his strikers in the tournament.
‘Haaland is on fire – he is the best striker’
Norwegian manager Stale Solbakken:
“Well, I mean, today [Haaland] he missed an open goal, and he could have scored four.
“No, I mean he’s the best striker – he’s not playing for France or Argentina, he’s scoring goals for Norway. He’s scored four goals now, two braces in the biggest league.
“It’s easy to win the Golden Boot when you play for France and Argentina, but we’ll try to give Erling more games, and more help in the next games too. So he’s on fire and I’m really happy for him that he can score at the biggest stage.
“We haven’t started that planning yet [for France] but, so now we will go back to our camp and make a good recovery because we need that after a very difficult game, and there will be other players playing that game.
Norwegian striker Erling Haaland:
“I don’t care, we’re done – they’re going to make it [France] maybe beat us and go on and win the whole tournament!”
