Bellingham is again the bright star of the England team
Jude Bellingham scored a double to help England defeat Norway 2-1 after extra time, thereby winning a ticket to the semi-finals of the 2026 World Cup in harsh weather conditions in Florida. In the semi-finals, coach Thomas Tuchel's team will face Argentina.
Bellingham continues to be the most outstanding player of the England team. The Real Madrid midfielder scored both goals, bringing the total number of goals scored at the 2026 World Cup to 6 goals, equaling the achievement of Harry Kane and Gary Lineker in a World Cup.
He also became the third highest scorer in England's history at the World Cup, surpassing Sir Geoff Hurst. In addition to scoring ability, Bellingham also impressed with abundant energy, wide operating ability and leadership role at the age of 23.
However, this victory also cost England. After many consecutive high-intensity matches, physical problems began to appear. Harry Kane, John Stones and many other players collapsed on the field after the final whistle because of exhaustion.
Declan Rice, Nico O'Reilly and Ezri Konsa all have to leave the field due to injury or overload, while Marc Guehi has not fully recovered from his thigh problem. Bukayo Saka also has difficulty with the Achilles tendon, and Jordan Henderson had previously left the tournament due to injury.
A positive point for Tuchel is that Reece James has returned from injury and played for nearly 50 minutes. In addition, yellow cards will be removed after the quarter-finals, helping England reduce the risk of losing a player before the semi-finals. Currently, only Jarell Quansah continues to serve a suspension.
Haaland's wonderful World Cup closes
This match was expected to be a showdown between Harry Kane and Erling Haaland, but neither of the two strikers had many opportunities to make an impression as the opponent's defense played disciplinedly.
After a series of explosive matches before that, Haaland was blocked by England. The Norwegian striker still moved wide and continuously looked for space, but only touched the ball 21 times - the fewest among non-goalkeeper players. He successfully executed 5 out of 13 passes, launched 2 shots on target and achieved an expected goal score (xG) of only 0.11, Haaland's lowest at the 2026 World Cup.
Haaland's first significant opportunity came in the 35th minute with a header forcing Jordan Pickford to show his talent to save. In the 76th minute, the Manchester City striker continued to have an opportunity after the ball bounced out from Kristoffer Ajer's header, but still could not beat the England goalkeeper.
Norway could have given Haaland another good opportunity at the end of the first half. In a two-to-one counter-attack in the 43rd minute, Alexander Sorloth made an unreasonable decision, creating conditions for the English defense to retreat to resolve the dangerous situation.
After playing the first half of extra time, Haaland was substituted by coach Stale Solbakken and replaced by Jorgen Strand Larsen.
Although unable to help Norway win a ticket to the semi-finals, Haaland still closed his first impressive World Cup. He scored 2 goals against Iraq in the opening match, scored a double against Senegal and was rested in the match against France when Norway had already qualified for the next round. After that, Haaland continued to score the decisive goal against Ivory Coast and scored a double against Brazil.
