Haaland sends Norway past Ivory Coast for first World Cup knockout win

Erling Braut Haaland’s 85th-minute finish lifted Norway past Ivory Coast 2-1 and into its first World Cup knockout victory, a result that gave force to his belief that this could be a turning point for Norwegian football. Antonio Nusa opened the scoring in the 38th minute, Amad Diallo equalized in the 73rd, and Haaland settled a tense match late to send Norway on to Brazil.

The win mattered because Norway had never before won a World Cup match in the knockout phase. It also came with the sort of pressure that has long accompanied Haaland and Martin Ødegaard, the two names most closely tied to Norway’s current rise, even after Ståle Solbakken chose to rest both against France once qualification had already been secured.

That earlier group match showed the gap Norway still has to close. France beat Norway 4-1 behind an Ousmane Dembélé hat-trick and a stoppage-time goal from Désiré Doué, then finished the group stage with three wins from three for the first time since 1998. Solbakken called France’s attack “the best in the competition by far,” a blunt measure of where Norway sits against the sport’s established powers.

The Norway-France meeting had been billed as a star duel between Haaland and Kylian Mbappé, with both forwards arriving with four goals from their first two games. The matchup mattered because it placed Norway’s emerging confidence against a France side used to handling the biggest stages, even with Didier Deschamps absent and Guy Stephan directing the team from the touchline.

Haaland’s winner against Ivory Coast does not erase the scale of what lies ahead, but it does give Norway a result that previous generations never produced. Brazil now waits in the next round, and Norway carries into that match a first knockout win, a striker in form and the possibility that a national shift is beginning to take hold.