On Tuesday afternoon at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Erling Haaland delivered one of the most iconic goals in Norwegian soccer history.
Norway came out aggressive and got rewarded early with 21-year-old winger Antonio Nusa dribbling into the left side of the penalty area and scoring the first goal of the match with a strike in the top right corner.
But Ivory Coast, who had been one of the tournament’s more physical sides, didn’t go down quietly. Manchester United star Amad Diallo came on as a substitute for Les Elephants in the 60th minute and made an immediate impact, putting one in the back of the net in the 74th minute to make it 1-1.
Then, in the 86th minute, Haaland took over, scoring the game-winner and sealing a 2-1 victory for Norway. It was Norway’s first-ever win in the knockout stages of a World Cup, with the Vikings now on to the Round of 16.
Norway hasn’t appeared in a World Cup since 1998, before Haaland was even born. Now, he’s scored five goals in his first four matches, which places him second in the tournament behind only Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who has six.
Both are climbing further on the list of most goals scored ever in a World Cup. The all-time leader is France’s Just Fontaine with 13 back in 1958, followed by Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis with 11 in 1954 and West Germany’s Gerd Muller with 10 in 1970.
With Tuesday’s goal, however, Haaland also became the fastest player in history to score 60 international goals, doing so in just 54 games.
Haaland is still just 25 years old, and while he’s dominated for Manchester City over the last few Premier League seasons, this was his official World Cup debut, and he’s made a statement.
But the road won’t get any easier for the Norwegian striker and his Landslaget counterparts.
With Brazil just narrowly edging out Japan on Monday in Houston, Norway will now face the Seleção in the Round of 16 on July 5 at MetLife Stadium.
If they can scrape out a win there, they’re probably looking at a quarterfinals matchup against either England or co-hosts Mexico on July 11.