After Erling Haaland scored two goals within two minutes, Norway secured a World Cup spot by defeating Italy 4–1 on Sunday.
Norway had almost guaranteed World Cup qualification after beating Estonia on Thursday. For Italy to qualify directly, they needed to beat Norway by a margin of 9 goals.
Italy took the lead early in the match. In the 11th minute, Pio Esposito scored from a Federico Dimarco pass to give Italy the advantage. Italy kept attacking afterward but couldn’t score another goal in the first half.
The second half was completely dominated by Norway and Haaland. Antonio Nusa scored in the 63rd minute to level the match. Then, in the 78th minute, Haaland scored from a cross by teammate Oscar Bobb to give Norway a 2–1 lead.
Haaland scored his second goal in the 79th minute. With this, he has now scored 16 goals in 8 World Cup qualifying matches. In injury time, Jørgen Strand Larsen also scored, confirming Norway’s victory.
With Norway qualifying for the World Cup, Haaland will follow in the footsteps of his father, Alf-Inge Haaland, who represented Norway in the 1998 World Cup.
Italy is once again forced to play in the playoffs. In the last two editions, Italy failed to qualify through the playoffs—losing 1–0 to Sweden in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers and 1–0 to North Macedonia in the 2022 qualifiers.
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