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England are fortunate to remain level with Norway in their 2026 World Cup quarter-final after Torbjorn Heggem had a goal disallowed following a VAR review.
Heggem thought he had restored Norway’s lead, only for the goal to be ruled out because of a push by Erling Haaland.
Norway had opened the scoring against the run of play when Andreas Schjelderup’s apparent mishit cross beat Jordan Pickford.
But England equalised in controversial circumstances through Jude Bellingham after the ball appeared to hit the overhead Spidercam during the build-up.
78’ Norway 1-1 England
Lovely cut inside from Saka, whose cross-shot curls through the box and just misses the far post with Anderson waiting.
I can’t help thinking that England are still shattered from their exploits in Mexico. It really looks like it has taken its toll on the group — and I can’t stop thinking about Solbakken’s decision to rest his key players against France at the end of the group stage either.
They look fresher and fitter.
With 12 minutes of normal time left here, this has been England’s worst performance of the World Cup I think.
They’ve been a mess since the first-half drinks break, aside from Bellingham’s brilliant equaliser. But they’ve at least regained a foothold since James came on.
I wonder if we might see Spence or Burn on soon, with Konsa limping.
What an intervention that is from Konsa. Would surely have been a goal if he had not got his head to the ball first.
75’ Norway 1-1 England
Norway have come out big since the restart. They’ve already have some promising moments in the England penalty box — and now Ajer heads against the crossbar as England struggle to deal with a corner.
I’m still not sure how they survived that scramble either. Berge is outmuscled at the far post under the loose ball too.
So close for Norway.
Tuchel knows far more than me but it does feel a little strange that England now have a centre-back at right-back while their best right-back plays in midfield and a specialist midfielder, Kobbie Mainoo, sits on the bench.
Presumably it’s about the physical presence that Reece James’ can offer and Mainoo can’t.
A surprising change from England with Reece James coming on for Gordon.
James is sat in the middle next to Anderson, Bellingham is back in the 10, and Eze wide on the left. It feels like Tuchel is trying to fix his half-time mistake.
72’ Norway 1-1 England
Changes ahead of the restart. Reece James is on for Anthony Gordon.
A double change for Norway too, as Antonio Nusa and Oscar Bobb come on — for Alexander Sorloth and goalscorer Andreas Schjelderup.
We are back underway.
A very strange third quarter, when the only thing that happened was the long VAR decision which overturned that potential Norway goal.
England look unbalanced and lost after those two subs at half-time, Anderson is exposed in the middle of the pitch, Eze and Saka are offering nothing going forward yet.
Huge hydration break here for England.
On the basis of Gordon’s first look at Aursnes, Gordon might get some proper change out of him. Aursnes didn’t know what to do with him.
Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane have become the second pair of team-mates at this tournament to score five goals, joining French duo Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele.
You have to go back to 2002 to find the last two players on the same team to do that, Ronaldo and Rivaldo for Brazil.
68’ Norway 1-1 England
The second hydration break catches a few out there. It will be interesting to see if this is the nudge this game needs to get going again, as was the case in the first half.
Just before the second half restarted, the Fox broadcast showed us a replay of the ball hitting the overhead wire before England’s equaliser.
Nyland’s goal kick hit the wire that the spidercam is attached to, dropped to Anderson who passed to Gordon who then fed Bellingham. There were protests from Nyland, Haaland and their manager Stale Solbakken at the time, but the goal was allowed to stand.
Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg, part of Fox’s team for the World Cup, said that VAR should have intervened and disallowed the goal.
FIFA has subsequently claimed that it was checked and the motion sensor in the ball showed that there was no touch.
After the end of the first half where it looked like this game had woken up a bit, it’s all pretty flat again now.
It’s got the distinct feeling of players being afraid of taking risks and of getting caught out on the ball.
Sorloth’s game isn’t shaping up to be any better than Madueke’s.
Have I mentioned that Sorloth isn’t very good?
England haven’t got going second half at all here. I know Rice wasn’t at his best but England need him and they’ve lost structure without him — they don’t even have the outlet of Madueke either now.
Not sure why it was Eze over Morgan Rogers either, but it’s not working.
It has been all Norway in this second half so far.
62’ Norway 1-1 England
Ryerson’s match is indeed done. He makes way, with Fredrik Aursnes on in his place.
Norway are still dictating the play here. They’ve had 71 per cent possession since half-time.
England are missing Rice a lot, it feels.
Whoever decided that a team who commit a foul before the corner comes in gets to retake it is incredibly silly, I can’t believe that was the result from Haaland’s push on Anderson.
Not everything needs to mirror the Premier League but I can’t see why a foul, just because it’s before the ball is kicked, shouldn't result in a loss of attacking advantage.
It’s definitely a foul by Haaland on Anderson. And football will definitely benefit if those kind of shoves at corners get stamped out.
But it’s an interesting moment to start applying the law strictly. Feels like a hell of a lot of similar pushes have been let go over the last few years.
I don’t think Erling Haaland could complain there. It was a two-handed shove in the chest and even if Elliot Anderson went down a bit softly, there’s no way that could have stood given some of the other decisions we’ve seen at this tournament.
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ENG
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