Erling Haaland claimed one of Italy’s players kept grabbing his butt during Sunday night’s match and the pair got into a fist fight before Norway cruised to an emphatic victory.
Erling Haaland claims Italy’s Gianluca Mancini kept grabbing his butt during Norway’s win over the Azzurri, but it ultimately inspired the Manchester City ace as Norway powerfully secured their World Cup place.
Haaland scored two of Norway’s four goals and completed a perfect qualification with eight wins, but the match did not go off without a hitch and Haaland’s Manchester City colleague, Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, had to thwart him.
Mancini was clearly trying to get through Haaland’s stomach and continued to grab the striker from the waist down, which frustrated the Norwegian. When Haaland opened up about the incident, he eventually confronted his opponent with the words exchanged between the two.
“When we were one-on-one, he started touching my butt and I was like, ‘What are you doing?'” Haaland told TV2. Then I got a little fired up and said to him, “Thank you for motivating me, let’s do our best.” ”
City’s marksman eventually scored two goals in two minutes to force the match into Italy’s hands. The score was tied at 1-1 with 15 minutes remaining, but Haaland continued to score great goals.
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His first shot was a powerful strike into the roof of the net after another City teammate, Oscar Bobb, set him free. The second one was a close range finish less than a minute later. Wolves ace Jorgen Strand Larsen scored his fourth goal in the 93rd minute to complete the demolition at San Siro.
“This is probably the worst result. The fact that we came here and won 4-1 is absolutely terrible and it shows that we are a bit unpredictable, which is a very good thing that everyone knows,” Haaland said.
Norway will be playing in their first World Cup since 1998, before Haaland was born. He played a vital role in achieving the team’s ambitions, scoring 16 goals in the qualifying stages, equaling the record set by Poland’s Robert Lewandowski. Haaland has scored in 11 consecutive World Cup qualifying games since 2021.
The Norwegians headed to Italy knowing that only the highly unlikely feat of scoring nine goals would earn them automatic qualification, and they got the job done in Italy with minimal fuss.
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